Universities; Enlightenment
A couple of items today:
First, here is a link to a new essay of mine that just appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education (paywalled, I’m afraid). It’s about why critics on both the left and the right have such distorted visions of elite American universities, seeing them alternately as citadels of neoliberalism or bastions of wokeness. In it, I point to a fact that should be entirely obvious but is overlooked surprisingly often in today’s overheated ideological battles, namely that like all rich, powerful institutions, elite American universities can usually be expected to act in their own self-interest. The fact that their leaders tend to be genuinely devoted to higher purposes doesn’t change this. Indeed, the belief that these institutions serve higher purposes generally only makes it more imperative, in the eyes of their leaders, to keep them as strong and prosperous as possible (as per the age-old principle, put on your own oxygen mask on first before helping others). In the essay I also talk about such topics as legacy admissions, teaching, and the most effective ways of putting pressure on university administrations.
Secondly, a wonderful moment in Paris yesterday as Antoine Lilti delivered his “inaugural lesson” at the Collège de France. As historians of France and of the Enlightenment are well aware, Lilti is one of the most brilliant historians of his generation, the author of three books that have opened remarkable new perspectives on the Enlightenment: Le monde des salons, Figures publiques, and L’Héritage des Lumières (the first two have been translated into English, the third is on its way). The lecture is powerful and eloquent in equal measure, drawing on Lilti’s past work while also pointing towards a new project on intellectual curiosity and the eighteenth-century French encounter with Polynesia. The Collège de France is the summit of French academia, and Lilti has now taken his place there, succeeding such figures as Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Roger Chartier, and his own advisor Daniel Roche (to whom he paid generous tribute). One of the great features of the institution is that its lectures are free and open to the public. I remember, in the early 1980’s, getting there very early and cramming into a packed lecture hall to hear Michel Foucault. Now, if you are not in Paris, you can listen to the podcast.