An intellectual doesn’t have to play that particular game. He can think and write about art or anthropology; contemplate Euclid or Euthyphro; or even argue for what he takes to be the truth of politics, rather than seek out political victory. Continue Reading »
The First Things Podcast, Episode 9. Anti-feminist icons remembered (the late Phyllis Schlafly) and welcomed (special guest Midge Decter). PC campus culture debated.
Continue Reading »
I thought it would be little more than a pleasure read, a short break before I got into the serious stuff, but soon I found that my expectations, and my reading habits, were being re-written. Continue Reading »
Part 3, SERVICE. When you join a committee, you either make your colleagues' workdays easier or make them harder. If the latter, they will remember the fact and it may very well come up at tenure time. Continue Reading »
Part 2: TEACHING. Sage-on-the-stage, the flipped classroom? No need for that. Just avoid a few crucial missteps. Plus: How to raise your students’ grades without inflating them. Continue Reading »
Tenure recommendations for humanities professors have three parts: research, teaching, service. If you are an untenured humanities who is also a religious or social conservative, the bar is set higher for you. I will be offering advice for each category. First, RESEARCH. Continue Reading »
The ordeal is over; my niece has chosen Tulane. A buddy in Wisconsin has a daughter, and she’s headed to Washington University. Another friend lives in Chicago, but he’s in Boston this week accompanying a daughter on campus tours. For him, the application season has just begun. I see people like . . . . Continue Reading »
I have been reading a lot of back-and-forth about “trigger warnings” lately. Students who see themselves as victims of discrimination and abuse are demanding that professors issue warnings about materials in courses they are teaching that might cause strong negative emotional responses in . . . . Continue Reading »
What does it mean to be an intellectual? The word comes from the Latin word for understanding, intellego. Lego has dense, multifaceted meanings: to choose, select, collect, and gather. It also means to read. When inter gets added, which means “between,” we get a compound meaning, something like . . . . Continue Reading »
The following essay is adapted from Chapter 3 of “The Fortunes of Poetry in an Age of Unmaking.” Those who love literature, or at any rate have a vested interest in making sure great works of literature are taught at universities and that radical politics are not, could only find the conquest . . . . Continue Reading »
Subscribe
Latest Issue
Support First Things
