American Campus Podcast
a social and political history of higher education
Episodes
149 episodes
History of college grading with Joshua R. Eyler
On class rank, Latin honors, the 4.0 grading scale, and other old traditionsReferences and suggested readings:Joshua R. Eyler. 2024. Failing Our Future: How Grades Har...
See You at the Pole, the Columbine massacre, and Christianity on campus with Amy Laura Hall
Muscular Christianity and its various forms on the campusReferences and suggested readings:Amy Laura Hall. 2026. Erecting the Pulpit: Muscular Christianity from Teddy ...
%20(3000%20x%203000%20px)%20(2).png)
The Flexner Report and contemporary critiques of medical professionalization with Ira Halpern
References and suggested readings:Ira Halpern. 2026. Imagining Health: Medicine, Social Protest, and Modern American Literature. University of Massachusetts...
Natural language processing, artificial intelligence, and algorithms with Xiaochang Li
On the origins of natural language processing and how corporations like IBM leaned into predictive algorithms.References and suggested readings:Xiaochang Li. 2026. Div...
%20(3000%20x%203000%20px)%20(1).png)
Tragedy of the education commons with Guy Standing
References and suggested readings:Guy Standing. 2026. Human Capital: The Tragedy of the Education Commons. Penguin Press. “
Revilo Oliver and the academic freedom of white supremacists with Matthew C. Ehrlich
References and suggested readings:Matthew C. Ehrlich. 2021. Dangerous Ideas on Campus: Sex, Conspiracy, and Academic Freedom in the Age of JFK. University o...
Disrupting White Noise: Challenging Beliefs about Race on Campus with Zak Foste and Lauren N. Irwin
References and suggested readings:Zak Foste and Lauren N. Irwin. 2026. Disrupting White Noise: Challenging Beliefs about Race on Campus.
Creating the Black high school with Alexander D. Hyres
References and suggested readings:Alexander D. Hyres. 2026. Protest and Pedagogy: Charlottesville’s Black Freedom Struggle and the Making of the American High School...
%20(3000%20x%203000%20px).png)
The Other University with Chad Wellmon
On the student life apparatus.References and suggested readings:Chad Wellmon. 2026. After the University: Higher Education and the Future of Intellectual Work...
Academic gerontocracy with Samuel Moyn
On age, class, and jobs.References and suggested readings:Samuel Moyn. 2026. Gerontocracy in America: How the Old Are Hoarding Power and Wealth—and What to Do About It...
Spirits, specters, and parapsychology professors with Jesse Bering
Speaking to the dead, academically.References and suggested readings:Jesse Bering. 2026. The Incredible Afterlives of Dr. Stevenson: One Scientist's Epic Ques...
The right’s attempt to capture Western Civ and Jewish Studies with Emmaia Gelman
A nice companion episode to last week's on The West with Curtis Dozier.References and suggested readings:Emmaia Gelman. 2026.
The West with Curtis Dozier
Athens, Jerusalem, and sometimes Rome.References and suggested readings:Curtis Dozier. 2026. The White Pedestal: How White Nationalists Use Ancient Greece and Rome to ...
What are universities for? with Marc Spooner
A small question!References and suggested readings:Marc Spooner and James McNinch, eds. 2026. Knowledge Under Siege: Charting a Future for Universities.
.png)
Quentin Deranque, the French Charlie Kirk with Jonathan Hauser
References and suggested readings:The Wild RobotHoppersJonathan Hauser’s
.png)
Alpha Kappa Alpha with Deborah E. Whaley
On all things AKAReferences and suggested readings:Deborah E. Whaley. 2010. Disciplining Women: Alpha Kappa Alpha, Black Counterpublics, and the Cultural Politics of B...
How class is reproduced in elite private schools with Emma Taylor
References and suggested readings:Emma Taylor. 2026. An Elite Education: How Privilege Is Produced in a Private School. Princeton University Press....
Yuppies with Dylan Gottlieb
On good cheese and how the career services office destroyed the American economyReferences and suggested readings:Dylan Gottlieb. 2026. Yuppies: The Bankers, Lawyers, ...
.png)
Teaching ‘80s and ‘90s pop culture to Gen Z with Austin McCoy
Ready to feel old?References and suggested readings:Austin McCoy. 2026. Living in a D.A.I.S.Y. Age: The Music, Culture, and World De La Soul Made. Si...
The Cultural Marxism Conspiracy with AJA Woods
References and suggested readings:AJA Woods. 2026. The Cultural Marxism Conspiracy: Why the Right Blames the Frankfurt School for the Decline of the West. V...
Institutional Review Boards with Marco Antonio Ramos
And why the IRB exempts humanities research.References and suggested readings:Marco Ramos’s faculty page
Writing for the public with David M. Perry
No gatekeeping.References and suggested readings:David M. Perry. 2026. The Public Scholar: A Practical Handbook. Johns Hopkins University Press. ...
Professional class liberals with Brent Cebul and Lily Geismer
References and suggested readings:Brent Cebul and Lily Geismer, eds. 2025. Mastery and Drift: Professional-Class Liberals since the 1960s. University of Chi...