On the material history of the university

References and suggested readings:

• William Whyte. 2026. The University: A History in Stone, Silk, and Blood. Harvard University Press. 
• William Whyte’s faculty page, Twitter, and LinkedIn

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References and suggested readings:

• Marshall Steinbaum and David Austin Walsh. 2026. How America’s Public Universities Stopped Being Public. Hedgehog Review.
• Robert A. Nesbit. 1996. The Degradation of the Academic Dogma. Routledge.
• Zachary Bleemer and Aashish Mehta. December 2024. College Major Restrictions and Student Stratification. National Bureau of Economic Research.
• Maya Rosen. October 11, 2026. Degrees of Separation. Jewish Currents. 
• Anna Perez. 2023. Understanding Zionism: History and Perspectives. Fortress Press.
• F. Scott Fitzgerald. Tender is the Night.
• Theodore Dreiser. Jennie Gerhardt.
• Molly Crabapple. 2026. Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund. One World.
• Mark Weitzman, Robert J Williams, James Wald, eds. 2025. The Routledge History of Antisemitism. Routledge.
• Marshall Steinbaum on Twitter @econ_Marshall and his website, marshallsteinbaum.org
• David Austin Walsh’s email [email protected]

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References and suggested readings:

• Karen Weaver. 2026. Understanding College Athletics: What Campus Leaders Need to Know About College Sports. Johns Hopkins University Press. 
• Karen Weaver. 2025. Sport Finance: Where the Money Comes From and Where the Money Goes, 2nd ed. Kendall Hunt.
• W Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne. 2026. The Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant. Harvard Business Review Press.
• Trustees and Presidents Managing Intercollegiate Athletics podcast on YouTube
• Karen Weaver’s website, Instagram, Bluesky, LinkedIn

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A deep-dive into the personal lives of the famed 20th century French theorists (all men) with their newest biographer.

References and suggested readings:

• Emily Eakin. 2026. The Frenchmen: Or, My Life in Theory. Penguin Press.
• Sarah Bakewell books
• Ross Douthat. November 2, 2022. How the Right Became the Left and the Left Became the Right. New York Times.
• James Miller. 2010. The Passion of Michel Foucault. Harvard University Press.
• John Guillory and Merve Emre. 2023. Cultural Capital: The Problem of Literary Canon Formation. University of Chicago Press.
• Meghan O’Gieblyn. 2026. Will and Attention: A Memoir. Doubleday.
• Emily Eakin’s website, essays at NYT, Instagram

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References and suggested readings:

• Peter Burke. 2026. The Connoisseur: A Cultural History. Reaktion Books. 
• Gore Vidal. 2000. Burr: A Novel. Vintage Books.
• Peter Burke’s website

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On the origins of the German research university and what universities should be today.

References and suggested readings:

• Chad Wellmon. 2016. Organizing Enlightenment: Information Overload and the Invention of the Modern Research University. Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Chad Wellmon. 2026. After the University: Higher Education and the Future of Intellectual Work. Johns Hopkins University Press. 
• Paul Reitter and Chad Wellmon. 2023. Permanent Crisis: The Humanities in a Disenchanted Age. University of Chicago Press.
• The Other University episode with Chad Wellmon.
• Ann M. Blair. 2011. Too Much to Know: Managing Scholarly Information Before the Modern Age. Yale University Press.
• Frank Landymore. February 23, 2026. New AI Agent Logs Directly Into College Platform Canvas to Do Your Homework for You. Futurism.
• Daniel Mendelsohn, trans. 2026. The Odyssey. University of Chicago Press.
• Jonathan Lear. 2008. Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation. Harvard University Press.
• Dennis Duncan. 2023. Index, A History of the: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age. W. W. Norton.
• What Was the Internet? Boston Review. August 2026.
• Follow Chad on Twitter @cwellmon
• Chadwellmon.com

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References and suggested readings:

• James Chandler. 2026. The Know-Nothing Campaign Against Higher Learning. Prickly Paradigm Press. 
• Robert Mackey. April 18, 2026. Trump’s antipathy for Pope may have roots in childhood Protestant church. The Guardian.
• Alexis de Tocqueville. Democracy in America.
• Wendy Brown. 2017. Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism's Stealth Revolution. Zone Books.
• Sam Moyn 2024. Liberalism Against Itself: Cold War Intellectuals and the Making of Our Times. Yale University Press.
• Adam Smith. The Wealth of Nations.
• Tyler G. Anbinder. 1994. Nativism and Slavery: The Northern Know Nothings and the Politics of the 1850s. Oxford University Press
• Laura K. Field. 2025. Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right. Princeton University Press.
• Jennifer Pitts. Kayfabe, Trolling, Satire, and Cynicism. Prickly Paradigm Press blog.
• Richard Hofstadter. 1966. Anti-Intellectualism in American Life. Vintage.
• Thorstein Veblen. 1918. The Higher Learning in America: A Memorandum on the Conduct of Universities by Business Men. Open Access PDF.
• American Campus episodes on Thorstein Veblen and with Laura Field on Furious Minds.

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References and suggested readings:

• Trevor Griffey. 2007. “The Strongest Chapter in WA: Bellingham's KKK.” The Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project.
• Allan J. Lichtman. 2008. White Protestant Nation: The Rise of the American Conservative Movement. Grove Press.
• Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925)
• Lothrop Stoddard Wiki
• Perlstein’s mea culpa: Rick Perlstein. April 11, 2017. I Thought I Understood the American Right. Trump Proved Me Wrong. New York Times Magazine.
• On MAGA small business owners and car dealers: Alexander Sammon. May 30, 2023. Want to Stare Into the Republican Soul in 2023? Slate. 
• Higher Ed Labor (in California and Beyond) Substack
• Follow Trevor on Twitter, BlueSky
• https://x.com/trevorgriffey/status/2080041013507510403?s=46 

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An intellectual history of inequality in the US.

References and suggested readings:

• Kim Phillips-Fein. 2026. Country of Lords: Neo-Aristocrats, Social Darwinists, Tech Utopians, and the Long Fight Against Equality in America. W. W. Norton.
• Kim Phillips-Fein. 2018. Fear City: New York's Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics. Picador.
• Kim Phillips-Fein. 2010. Invisible Hands: The Businessmen's Crusade Against the New Deal. W. W. Norton.
• Corey Robin. 2018. The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Endmund Burke to Donald Trump, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press. Open access PDF. 
• Richard Herrnstein. 1971.  “i.q.” The Atlantic.
• Pioneer Fund, the dark money trust that won't let race science die American Campus episode with John P. Jackson Jr.
• Victor S. Navasky. 2003. Naming Names. Hill and Wang.
• Thomas Mann. 1996. Magic Mountain. Vintage.
• Anna Veltfort. 2019. Goodbye, My Havanna: The Life and Times of a Gringa in Revolutionary Cuba. Redwood Press.
• Kim Phillips-Fein’s faculty page
• kimphillipsfein.com

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How Napoleon's École polytechnique inspired A&M universities on the Western US border (ft. some of our favorite topics: American imperialism, science, and social hierarchy)

References and suggested readings:

• Sveinn M. Jóhannesson. 2026. The Scientific-Military State: How Enlightened Engineers Reinvented Early American Government. University of Chicago Press. 
• James McNeill Whistler. 1879. Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 (known as Portrait of the Artist’s Mother) painting.
• Livy’s History of Rome
• Tacitus The Annals of Imperial Rome
• Sveinn M. Jóhannesson’s website

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