A blog on higher education and related issues.
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Leonora Carrington, Crookhey Hall seen July 17 2026 I want to talk about the relations among AI, university teaching, and university budgeting. These links are not getting nearly enough combined attention. College graduates are chief among the frontline victims of the AI story, joining non-college workers in a new phase of disposability (see Heck et al. 2026 for Brookings, with good Sankey…
Banff, Alberta back country on June 5, 2026 by Dennis M. Hogan, Lecturer on History & Literature, Harvard University This is the third of the talks from the CHCI panel, "The Humanities We Can Build Right Now" in Banff, Alberta. The others were Chris Nealon’s and Asheesh Kapur Siddique’s is here , along with my introduction to the panel. ∞∞∞ This paper is a response to two trends I've noticed over…
Landing Santa Barbara Airport on Jan 30, 2026 by Charlie Hale, Dean of Social Sciences and Professor of Anthropology and Global Studies, UC Santa Barbara. This is his response as a scholar, whose writings were called into question by the Report. The response does not represent the views of the dean's office, or of the university. Chris here: I'm posting a set of answers to a reporter’s questions…
From Tunnel Mtn, Banff on June 6, 2026 By Asheesh Kapur Siddique, Associate Professor of History, UMass Amherst This is the second of the talks from the CHCI panel, "The Humanities We Can Build Right Now" in Banff, Alberta. Chris Nealon’s is here , my introduction to the panel is here . Society needs the cultural knowledge that the humanities produces in its research and disseminates in its…
by Christopher Nealon , John Dewey Professor of English, Johns Hopkins University This is one of talks from the CHCI panel, "The Humanities We Can Build Right Now" in Banff, Alberta. My explanation of the context and my introduction to the panel are here . ** Thanks for having me, folks. I had been planning to devote my short presentation to an outline of the crisis facing STEM fields, and how…
Banff, Alberta back country on June 3, 2026 This piece is my introduction to a panel at the Annual Meeting of the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes in Banff, Alberta. CHCI funds research initiatives, among other things--see their Climate Futures call and other initiatives. The theme of this year's meeting was "Building the Future We Want," which is also an implicit theme of this…
UC Irvine on April 13, 2018 by Trevor Griffey, School of Humanities, UC Irvine Last May, 2025, I had the radicalizing experience of successfully lobbying for three months as part of a labor union coalition to prevent $270 million in proposed cuts to the University of California (UC) general fund allocation from the State of California, then watching multiple UC campuses go forward with tens of…
510 E. Peltason Dr, UC Irvine by Trevor Griffey, School of Humanities, UC Irvine The idea of continuing education— sometimes also called “lifelong learning”— is old and venerable. It taps into some of the best humanist ideals of self-improvement and the democratization of access to skills and knowledge. But the management of contemporary continuing education programs by many universities has shown…
Venice, Italy on May 8, 2026 by Sean L. Malloy, Department of History and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies (CRES), UC Merced In September 2025, I wrote a guest post for this blog entitled “Why Should We Stand Up for the UC?” that placed much of the blame for the current federal assault against the University of California on the complicity and weakness of UC leadership, including the Regents,…
Wayne State, Detroit on April 12, 2019 This is the corrected text of a talk I gave online to the Wayne State University conference, “Public Budgets, Public Good,” on April 30, 2026. Many thanks to the audience, whose questions about theory and practice were excellent. Thanks also to the sponsors: Labor@Wayne, AAUP, HELU, and Public Good U. I’m still sorry I wasn’t there in person. ∞∞∞ I’ve always…
