References and suggested readings:

• Linda M. Perkins. 2024. To Advance the Race: Black Women's Higher Education from the Antebellum Era to the 1960s. University of Illinois Press. 
• Crystal R. Sanders. 2024. A Forgotten Migration: Black Southerners, Segregation Scholarships, and the Debt Owed to Public HBCUs. University of North Carolina Press. 
• Marybeth Gasman and Levon T. Esters. 2024. HBCU: The Power of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Noliwe Rooks. 2024. A Passionate Mind in Relentless Pursuit: The Vision of Mary McLeod Bethune. Penguin Random House.
• Linda Perkins’ faculty page

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How colleges collect our data.

References and suggested readings:

• Andrew Guthrie Ferguson. 2026. Your Data Will Be Used Against You: Policing in the Age of Self-Surveillance. New York University Press. 
• Andrew Guthrie Ferguson and Jonathan Yusef Newton. 2020. The Law of Law School
• The Essential Guide for First-Year Law Students. New York University Press.
• Andrew Guthrie Ferguson. 2019. The Rise of Big Data Policing: Surveillance, Race, and the Future of Law Enforcement. New York University Press.
• John Warner and Matt Seybold. February 3, 2026. The Technology That's Taking Your Freedom. Academic Freedom On the Line.
• Brian Hochman. 2022. The Listeners: A History of Wiretapping in the United States. Harvard University Press.
• Andrew Guthrie Ferguson’s faculty page, LinkedIn, and Bluesky

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One of our favorite culture warriors, Dr. Cheney. 

References and suggested readings:

• Mark Hlavacik. 2025. Willing Warriors: A New History of the Education Culture Wars. University of Chicago Press. 
• Mark Hlavacik. 2016. Assigning Blame: The Rhetoric of Education Reform. Harvard University Press.
• Emma Whitford. January 7, 2026. Plato Censored as Texas A&M Carries Out Course Review. Inside Higher Ed.
• Texas A&M, Under New Curriculum Limits, Warns Professor Not to Teach Plato. New York Times.
• Lynne V. Cheney. October 20, 1994. The End of History. The Wall Street Journal. 
• Lynne V. Cheney. January 24, 1995. Kill My Old Agency, Please.
• Andrew Hartman. 2019. A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars, second edition. University of Chicago Press.
• Lynne Cheney, Pat Buchanan, Eric Foner, and Michael Kinsely. March 20, 1995. Crossfire, Part I and Part II
• Mark Hlavacik’s faculty page

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References and suggested readings:

• Bryan Alexander. 2023. Universities on Fire: Higher Education in the Climate Crisis. Johns Hopkins University Press. 
• Drew Miller. March 14, 2021. "No, Dolphins Did Not Reappear in Venice Canals: The Effects of COVID-19 on the Environment." University of Minnesota LawSci.
• Luke Kemp. 2025. Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse. Knopf.
• Future Trends Forum
• Bryan’s Substack
• bryanalexander.org 

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Hi, listeners! A little bonus content for you. This is audio from a recent talk I gave with the brilliant Nayanika Ghosh. You'll also hear friend of the pod, Andy Hines, who moderated our conversation at the Aydelotte Foundation at Swarthmore College. You can read more about the event here. You can also follow along with the Aydelotte podcast, Podalot here.

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Register for “Degrees, Debt, and the University: Andy Hines, Chris Newfield, Eleni Schirmer and Jason Wozniak in conversation,” Adeylotte Foundation, Swarthmore College

References and suggested readings:

• Brian Soucek. 2026. The Opinionated University: Academic Freedom, Diversity, and the Myth of Neutrality in American Higher Education. University of Chicago Press. 
• Kalven Committee: Report on the University’s Role in Political and Social Action, November 11, 1967. University of Chicago.
• Lauren Lassabe Shepherd. March 19, 2025. Whose Side Are College Administrators On? HNN.
• Hollis Robbins. December 23, 2025. The Noxiousness of Civic-Discourse Platforms. The Chronicle of Higher Education.
• Steven G Poskanzer. 2025. The University's Voice: Principled Silence and Purposeful Speech. Johns Hopkins University Press. 
• Joan Wallach Scott. 2019. Academic Freedom as an Ethical Practice. Knowledge, Power, and Academic Freedom.                   
• Check out AAUP resources on academic freedom
• Emily Bronte. Wuthering Heights.
• David Szalay. Flesh. Scribner.
• Brian Soucek’s faculty page, LinkedIn, and Bluesky

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On the learning styles myth

Register for “Degrees, Debt, and the University: Andy Hines, Chris Newfield, Eleni Schirmer and Jason Wozniak in conversation,” Adeylotte Foundation, Swarthmore College

References and suggested readings:

• Thomas Fallace. 2025. You Are Not a Kinesthetic Learner: The Troubled History of the Learning Style Idea. University of Chicago Press. 
• Thomas D. Fallace. 2018. In the Shadow of Authoritarianism: American Education in the Twentieth Century. Teachers College Press.
• Thomas D. Fallace. 2015. Race and the Origins of Progressive Education, 1880-1929. Teachers College Press.
• Thomas D. Fallace. 2010. Dewey & the Dilemma of Race: An Intellectual History, 1895-1922. Teachers College Press.
• Thomas Fallace. 2023. Racism of Maria Montessori. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 55(5), 619–631.
• Phyllis Povell. 2009. Montessori Comes to America: The Leadership of Maria Montessori and Nancy McCormick Rambusch. University Press of America.
• Maria Montessori. Pedagogical Anthropology, translated from the Italian by Frederic Taber Cooper. Lector House.
• Adam Laats. 2024. Mr. Lancaster's System: The Failed Reform That Created America's Public Schools. Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Thomas Fallace’s faculty page

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And authoritarian attacks on all of the above.

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We're prepping for an upcoming mailbag episode, ask us anything here

References and suggested readings:

• Ayala Panievsky. 2026. The New Censorship: How the War on the Media is Taking Us Down. Footnote Press. 
• Laura Gerbes. 2025. Listeners Like Who? Exclusion and Resistance in the Public Radio Industry. Princeton University Press.
• Kate Wright, Martin Scott, and Mel Bunce. 2024. Capturing News, Capturing Democracy: Trump and the Voice of America. Oxford University Press.
• Lea Ypi. 2022. Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History. W. W. Norton.
• Lea Ypi. 2025. Indignity: A Life Reimagined. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
• @panievsky on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn

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Get in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

Request a future episode topic here

We're prepping for an upcoming mailbag episode, ask us anything here

References and suggested readings:

• Martin J. Murray. 2025. Insurgent Politics in the Lone Star State: Remembering the Antiwar Movement in Austin, Texas, 1967-1973. University of North Texas Press.
• Beverly Gage. 2023. G-man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century. Penguin.
• Gregg L. Michel. 2024. Spying on Students: The FBI, Red Squads, and Student Activists in the 1960s South. LSU Press.
• Edward H. Miller. 2016. Nut Country: Right-Wing Dallas and the Birth of the Southern Strategy. University of Chicago Press.
• Doug Rossinow. 1999. The Politics of Authenticity: Liberalism, Christianity, and the New Left in America. Columbia University Press.
• Kellie Carter Jackson. 2024. We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance. Seal Press.
• Kellie Carter Jackson. 2020. Force and Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence. University of Pennsylvania Press.
• Katherine Verdery. 2018. My Life as a Spy: Investigations in a Secret Police File. Duke University Press.
• Timothy Garton Ash. 19998. The File: A Personal History. Vintage.
• Alice Embree. 2021. Voice Lessons. Briscoe Center for American History UT-Austin.
• Email Martin Murray: [email protected] 

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On all our favorite topics: imperialism, homosociality, liberalism, hazing! 

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We're prepping for an upcoming mailbag episode, ask us anything here

References and suggested readings:

• John F. Morris. 2025. Students to Soldiers: Secret Military Education at Elite Schools, 1815–1945. University of Virginia Press.
• Max Egremont. 2012. Forgotten Land: Journeys Among the Ghosts of East Prussia. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
• Follow John Morris on Instagram @jfm_exclusive 

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