Here are the essays I've written for various news outlets and magazines. If you're a student, you have my word that, while I'm a political being, like you, with ideas and values and issues I care about, I will always do my best to rigorously support intellectual diversity in the classroom and on campus. I will always treat you with the fairness and respect you deserve as a person and a student, regardless of your political orientation.
Essays in Local and National Venues
77) I Know Why College Grades Are Going Up, The New Republic
76) West Virginia University is Everything that’s Wrong with Higher Education Today, The New Republic
75) Are A.P. Classes a Waste of Time?, The New Republic
74) We Choose to Live with Dangerous Roads, Waterville Morning Sentinel
73) College Students are Tired of Being Treated Like Employees, The New Republic
72) Cancel Culture Did Not Stab Salman Rushdie, The New Republic
71) The Humanities are Facing a Credibility Crisis, The Washington Post
70) Have the Founders of the University of Austin Been in the Classroom Lately?, The New Republic
69) Watching Netflix with Connie and Emma, The Rambling
68) The Biggest P.C. Police Are The Actual Police, The Washington Post
67) Higher Ed Is Not a Zero Sum Game, The Chronicle of Higher Education Review
66) Anatomy of a Successful Campus Talk, Guernica Magazine
65) The Real Threat to Free Speech On Campus Isn’t Coming From the Left, The Washington Post
64) Data at the Dawn of the Anthropocene, Brooklyn Rail
63) Centering the Humanities, Inside Higher Education
62) We Don’t Need a Scapegoat to Talk About Values in Higher Education, Academe
60) What Does the ‘Intellectual Dark Web’ Know About the Enlightenment?, Everyday Analysis
59) Colleges Say More Teaching is Better. They’re Wrong, The Chronicle of Higher Education Review
58) 4 Academic Fashion Tips You Should Know, Stylish Academic
57) How Blind Reverence for Science Obscures Real Problems, The Washington Post
56) Finding Genres of Revolution in the Classroom, Age of Revolutions
55) Lies About the Humanities, The Chronicle of Higher Education Review
54) Postmodernism Didn't Cause Trump. It Explains Him, The Washington Post
53) Steven Pinker's Enlightenment Now, Vox
51) Are Liberal College Students Creating a Free Speech Crisis? Not According to Data, NBC News (Think)
50) Political Correctness has Run Amok On the Right, The Chronicle of Higher Education Review
49) Why Not Social Reading?, Ploughshares Blog
48) The Decline of Debate on College Campuses, The New Republic
47) The Use of Dubious Science to Defend Racism is as Old as the Founding Fathers, NBC News (Think)
46) Mary Chudleigh and Roy Moore, Ploughshares Blog
45) The Problem with "Taking Offense," Academe
44) When Scientists Study Novels, Ploughshares Blog
43) What Stunts Like Milo Yiannopoulos' "Free Speech Week" Cost, The New York Times
42) The Self-Made Heir, Ploughshares Blog
41) Offense of the Humanities, The Los Angeles Review of Books Blog
40) Trump, Transphobia, and the Lessons of The Argonauts, Ploughshares Blog
39) Spying on the Rich in Crazy Rich Asians and Moll Flanders, Ploughshares Blog
38) How the Right Stifles Speech with Threats and Violence, The New Republic
37) Why Colleges Have the Right to Reject Hateful Speakers, The New Republic
36) The Myth of the "Marketplace of Ideas" On Campus, The New Republic
35) Advice for My Conservative Students, The New York Times
34) Oh, Sancho: The Ongoing Ride of Don Quixote in American Politics, The Los Angeles Review of Books
33) The Myth of the Liberal "Echo Chamber" on Campus, The New Republic
32) How to Fix Our Toxic Debate About Political Correctness On Campus, The New Republic
31) Are PhD Students Irrational?, The Los Angeles Review of Books
30) I'm Not a Student, I Just Look Like One, The Chronicle of Higher Education
29) The 'Free Speech' Charade, The New Republic
28) The Republican Establishment's Donald Trump Delusions, Salon
27) What the "P.C." Left is Doing Wrong in Language Debates, The New Republic
26) Trump's Jackbooted Thugs Against Political Correctness, Salon
25) The big millennial P.C. Lie and the Myth of Campus Intolerance, Salon
24) How the Microscope Redefined the Fact, The Atlantic
23) College Students Aren't 'Cuddly Bunnies,' The New Republic
22) Paul Ryan, Gun Control, and the Politics of Self-Interest, Salon
20) Who Needs the Constitution Anyway? Trump Sets the First Amendment on Fire, Salon
19) America's Real-Life Dystopia: Wal-Mart, Orwell, Huxley, Salon
18) Ben Carson Wants a Safe Space, Salon
17) They're the Politically Correct: Carson and O'Reilly are the Real Intolerant Speech Police, Salon
16) Cucks, Wimps, and Feminazis, Salon
15) 'Morons,' 'Dumb,' 'Idiots': Shkreli and Trump Deserve Each Other, Salon
14) Note to 'A Socialist at Liberty U,' The Atlantic
13) The New Right Wing College Lie, Salon and Alternet
12) The Trigger Warning Myth, The New Republic
11) Fact-checking Bill O'Reilly, Salon and Alternet
10) The Right's Terrified to Talk About Race, Salon
9) Bigoted Caitlyn Jenner Coverage Says It All About Today's Hypocritical Right, Salon and MSN
8) My Students Need Trigger Warnings; Professors Do Too, The New Republic
7) Scott Walker's Destructive War on Education, Salon
6) Racism's Sinister Word Games, Salon.com and HuffingtonPost
5) Jon Stewart's Brilliant Obscenity, Salon
4) Hey College Kids, Major in John Oliver and Neil deGrasse Tyson (a defense of humanities), Salon
3) Millennials aren't Apathetic; Their Vote is Suppressed, Salon