Over the past year, The Chronicle Review published 196 essays, book reviews, and news articles written by professors, administrators, grad students, journalists, and one personal assistant. Taken as a whole, the themes that inspired, unsettled, and provoked readers included the corporatization of the university; sexual politics and the impact of Title IX; tensions between academic freedom and civility; race on campus (including injustices suffered by black professors), and the push and pull of intellectual progress across the disciplines.
Controversy swirled around a work of urban ethnography. Academic outcasts sought to contribute new insights (and, perhaps, revive their reputations). Professors questioned the teaching-research binary and diagnosed a “plague of hypersensitivity.”
Here are 10 articles that strongly connected with readers in 2015. We think they’re worth another look.
—The Editors
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The Review
The Slow Death of the University
Bean counters, bureaucrats, and barbarians are to blame. -
The Chronicle Review
Sexual Paranoia Strikes Academe
How campus rules make students more vulnerable. -
The Chronicle Review
My Title IX Inquisition
What’s the good of having a freedom you’re afraid to use? -
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The Chronicle Review
Teach or Perish
The professoriate needs to refocus on students or face extinction. -
The Chronicle Review
When I Was White
Regardless of what you may think of Rachel Dolezal, racial transition is a valid experience. I have gone through it. -
The Chronicle Review
The End of Male Supremacy
Biologically, intellectually, socially, women are the superior gender, and society will increasingly reflect that. -
The Chronicle Review
What ‘Learning How to Think’ Really Means
Intellectual virtues prepare students for their professional and personal lives.