How a media panic led to the modern research university with Chad Wellmon

On the origins of the German research university and what universities should be today.

References and suggested readings:

• Chad Wellmon. 2016. Organizing Enlightenment: Information Overload and the Invention of the Modern Research University. Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Chad Wellmon. 2026. After the University: Higher Education and the Future of Intellectual Work. Johns Hopkins University Press. 
• Paul Reitter and Chad Wellmon. 2023. Permanent Crisis: The Humanities in a Disenchanted Age. University of Chicago Press.
• The Other University episode with Chad Wellmon.
• Ann M. Blair. 2011. Too Much to Know: Managing Scholarly Information Before the Modern Age. Yale University Press.
• Frank Landymore. February 23, 2026. New AI Agent Logs Directly Into College Platform Canvas to Do Your Homework for You. Futurism.
• Daniel Mendelsohn, trans. 2026. The Odyssey. University of Chicago Press.
• Jonathan Lear. 2008. Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation. Harvard University Press.
• Dennis Duncan. 2023. Index, A History of the: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age. W. W. Norton.
• What Was the Internet? Boston Review. August 2026.
• Follow Chad on Twitter @cwellmon
• Chadwellmon.com