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American Campus Podcast
a social and political history of US higher ed
Episodes
62 episodes
Tuskegee and the Afterlives of the Plantation with Jarvis McInnis
Tuskegee, Alabama, the center of modernity in the Black Global SouthReferences and suggested readings:Jarvis McInnis. 2025. Afterlives of the Plantation: Plotti...
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50:19
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Frank Meyer: the man who invented conservatism with Daniel Flynn
From college radical to rightwing organizer, the 3-D life and education of The Man Who Invented Conservatism.References and suggested readings:Daniel J. Flynn. 2025. T...
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38:14
Global attacks on academic freedom with Eve Darian-Smith
References mentioned this episode:Eve Darian-Smith. 2025. Policing Higher Education: The Antidemocratic Attack on Scholars and Why It Matters. Johns Hopkins University Press. O...
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27:25
TurningPointUSA and the Professor Watchlist with Matthew Boedy
Are you on the Professor Watchlist?References mentioned this episode:Matthew Boedy. 2025.
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27:09
DEI win in Mississippi (and what you can do in your state) with James M. Thomas
A DEI victory Mississippi! Plus, JT Thomas explains what's wrong with Diversity, Inc.References and suggested readings:James M. Thomas. 2020. Diversity Regimes:...
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28:24
DEI from the 90s to now with Nimisha Barton
From tolerance to land acknowledgements.References mentioned this episode:Nimisha Barton. 2024. A Just Future: Getting from Diver...
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49:49
NYT discovers community colleges, UChicago discovers crypto losses with Marshall Steinbaum
The Chicago boys would have loved digital assets. References and suggested readings:Alan Blinder and Steven Rich. August 25, 2025.
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20:05
A gender, queer, and trans history of the British university with Sam Rutherford
College, a nice time for nice ladies.References mentioned this episode:Samuel Rutherford. 2025. Teaching Gender...
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51:52
Before ChatGPT, there were MOOCs with Anne Trumbore
A human history of ed techReferences mentioned this episode:Anne Trumbore. 2025.
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31:31
Developmental editing for scholarly writers with Laura Portwood-Stacer
On making our academic writing a little more reader friendly.References mentioned this episode:Laura Portwood-Stacer. 2025.
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18:41
The neuroscientists who fled Nazi Germany with Frank Stahnisch
And, do US academics face a similar situation today?References mentioned this episode:Frank Stahnisch. 2025. Great Minds in Despair: The Forc...
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44:14
Religious colleges and their tax exemptions with Adam Laats
We forgot to mention Bob Jones was the son of a Confederate veteran.References mentioned this episode:Adam Laats’s websiteAdam Laats. April 28, 2025.
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26:40
Eugenics and the creation of statistics with Akira O’Connor and Erin Robbins
On the creation of the statistical tests we often use in human behavioral research, especially in the fields of psychology, education, economics, and political science.References mentioned this episode:Akira O’Connor and Erin...
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17:05
The “rise and fall” of prison education with Reiko Hillyer
From Johnson’s Great Society to Clinton’s crime bill, Reiko Hillyer discusses the “rise and fall” of higher education in US prisons. Plus, she shares her experience as a professor who teaches in prisons.References mentioned this episode:...
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42:56
Angola prison: a college with Piper Hutchinson
Louisiana State Penitentiary, a former plantation known simply as “Angola," is a site of higher education. Journalist Piper Hutchinson explains. References mentioned this episode:Piper Hutchinson. May 2, 2025. “
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20:15
History of federal student loans with Elizabeth Tandy Shermer
In 2025, 45 million Americans owe more than $1.7 trillion in college debt. Ellie Shermer explains: “the story of skyrocketing college debt is not merely one of good intentions gone wrong. In fact, the federal student loan program was never supp...
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49:16
Harvard Business School and the creation of the MBA with Erik Baker
That degree.References mentioned this episode:Erik Baker. 2025. Make Your Own Job: The Entrepreneurial Work Ethic in Modern America. Harva...
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18:17
Law and economics and the backlash to critical legal studies with David Austin Walsh
First, a continuation of the Chicago school of economics history (a nice follow up to last week’s episode on Char...
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43:48
Charles Walgreen and the University of Chicago with Steven Melendez
Professors teaching about communism and socialism? Un-American! Here’s some cash to make sure the university is preaching the supreme American virtue: capitalism. If you caught our joint episode with the In Bed with the Right podcas...
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22:51
Medieval hazing rituals with Hannah Skoda
Freshman hazing, a time honored tradition of (at least) 1,500 years.References mentioned this episode:Hannah Skoda. 2025. Frying Pans, Limpets, Donk...
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25:06
The Frankfurt School comes to the US with Jonathan Fine
From Kant to CRT via Columbia and UC Irvine.References mentioned this episode:The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, 3rd edition. W. W. Norton.Miquel de P...
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27:20
The IQ test with Pepper Stetler
On the eugenics origins of the IQ test and why we're still using it in 2025.References mentioned this episode:Pepper Stetler. 2024.
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30:52
God and Man at Yale with Sam Tanenhaus
Sam Tanenhaus joins me for a deep dive into the college career of friend of the pod, William F. Buckley Jr., and his 1951 shot that fired the campus wars: God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of "Academic Freedom."Reference...
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43:43
The academic spies of WWII with Elyse Graham
How does a librarian kill someone with a newspaper? This and other academic spycraft in Elyse Graham's Book and Dagger.References mentioned this episode:Elyse Graham. 2024.
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25:39
Richard T. Greener, Harvard's first Black graduate with Christian Anderson
Richard T. Greener was the first Black graduate of Harvard College in 1870. Greener went on to be a professor, lawyer, dean of Howard University law school, diplomat, and a celebrated intellectual of the Reconstruction era. Christian K. Anderso...
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17:35