Higher Education @ Yale!

[Joe in PNG]

Unironically, Yale historian Timothy Snyder , wrote an excellent book on the mass murder of central/eastern European peoples by both Nazi and Soviet policies.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodlands

14,000,000 people murdered, 1/4 before WWII started.

One could even note that the 20th Century genocide thing got going in Turkey well before WWI: Hamidian massacres
WWI just kicked it into a higher gear.

[camel]

One could even note that the 20th Century genocide thing got going in Turkey well before WWI: Hamidian massacres
WWI just kicked it into a higher gear.

It’s interesting to note. That that area has always been fluid and has been much what political thought has been spent on. Much of the USA has been insulated from the wars except when we participated.

My polish grandmother was polish. But she had family in what is now Ukraine. That side of the family ceased to exist. But I know she wouldn’t have held doubt. About. Fighting the Russians. Considering Katyn.

Wrong thread. Yea

[Kanye Wyoming]

I wonder whether this will be looked back on as a watershed moment. Fareed Zakaria (yes that Fareed Zakaria) has just gone nuclear on higher education. To summarize, while motivated by good intentions, colleges and universities have lost their way by focusing on DEI, ideological conformity, safe spaces, &c., at the expense of rigorous research and teaching. It’s the equivalent of an Eagles fan saying “eh, maybe we’ve been too tough on the Cowboys and their fans all these years.”

Very much worth a listen.

https://twitter.com/@twitter/status/1733927077085143263?s=61&t=wmOExLrvrYmeFOVr8qFeRQ

[cheby]

Victor Davis Hanson:

People say to me: "You're an academic and you spent your whole life, how did you deal with the 94% of all academics who are left-wing? ... Why are they so left-wing? Do they have tenure? They're exempt from worrying about losing their job? ... Are they idealistic because they deal with words?"

I say, "No, they understand that if you want to get tenure and be promoted and liked, you parrot the majority. If it paid better, they'd be fascists."

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Zakaria had it nailed. He's been on that track for quite a bit lately. You can find a text version on the CNN website. The Humanities are doomed IMHO for several reasons:

1. They became a cause rather than a discipline. If you don't work in something related to social justice - you will never get employed.

2. This is subtle and an observation from years in the biz. Lots of fields offered an intro course in their area as a background for undergrads and a recruiting tool. It was argued that you need some knowledge base to progress to higher levels. However, the Humanities faculty just wanted to teach their specialty in seminars. They didn't want to teach the intros - in Universities that meant grad students taught the intro, in smaller schools, part time adjuncts who couldn't get a tenure track job. Then, they abandoned the intros all together and argued you didn't need the background. This is because kids weren't flocking to their seminars, they would take the intro course and move on (as part of the general requirements). The faculty now made their specialized seminar part of the general requirements. Then, the seminars all became social justice and cause related. The seminar in Etruscan Art died with the old fart who taught that. A new fart couldn't get a job if that was their specialty. Recall that for a job nowadays, you have to write a statement how you fought for social justice and DEI since the time of your birth.

An Art History prof whose enrollment was failing, told me the stupidest thing they ever did was kill the Intro to Art History as it killed the recruitment - not that an Art History degree is worth much nowadays.

3. Kids want jobs when they get out. They aren't stupid.

Now some of the social sciences are going that way. Sociology and Anthropology have become explicit causes in official professional association declarations. I don't know that the physical anthropologists and archaeologists are doing. They were almost a separate branch of Anthro. They used to use the deceased macaques from Neuro in their anatomy labs.

Psychology is seeing some of that. The American Psychological Association issued a cause focus. The nonclinical fields are moving towards separation into neuroscience, cognitive science with their own conventions, etc. Very little hard science is presented at the APA meetings.

During the Gulf Wars and Afghanistan, the Anthro organization denounced then and forever any contribution to the Armed Forces. I asked one if the Martians invaded and a take on their culture might be useful, would you join the war effort - kind of stumped the nice lady.

The Foreign languages moved from teaching the language (that was done by adjuncts) to the culture of their language base. Who cares - so an argument for learning a language is worthy. A major in French Theater Culture - who cares except in the most elite schools.

[Kanye Wyoming]

[Totem Polar]

Since this thread is back up, may as well throw today’s Bari missive in the mix:

https://www.thefp.com/p/bari-weiss-h...gher-education

”My main point here is that Magill’s resignation, by itself, doesn’t solve anything. But it—along with the turmoil at Harvard—marks an important moment. Now everyone can see how deeply academia is broken. And you can’t fix something until you look, carefully and realistically, at the thing itself.”