What’s Wrong with Literary Studies?
How a group of English scholars are trying to bring emotion and engagement back into the study of literature.
Saskia Sassen’s Missing Chapter
Adolf Eichmann was a frequent visitor to sociologist Saskia Sassen’s childhood home in Argentina. This essay meditates on Sassen’s life and career, her father’s past and the notion of public and private lives. A response from Sassen can be found here.
The Gates Effect
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is spending millions to change the way we think about higher education. It includes potential changes on how students receive federal aid, and projects that aim to deliver a college degree that costs no more than $5,000 a year. But is it a good thing—and what really needs fixing?
“In higher education, many leaders and faculty members voice concerns about the Gates foundation’s growing and disproportionate impact. Many private-college presidents, in particular, feel shut out of discussions about reform. Yet few of those critics speak out in public, and some higher-education leaders, researchers, and lobbyists were reluctant to talk on the record for this article. The reason? They didn’t want to scotch their chances of winning Gates grants.”
