"Whither the Looniversity?" - A Podcast on the Miserable State of the American University

Dr. Kontorovich is a professor of computer science at Ben Gurion University in Israel, where his research focuses on machine learning, Markov chains, probability, and statistics. Recently, he has been working with ChatGPT and has had some success in demonstrating its limitations when it comes to logic, reasoning, and humor. We discuss the future implications of AI for teaching and learning in higher education. Dr. Kontorovich comes from a family of Russian Jewish academics, and we also discuss why so many scholars with family ties to the old Soviet Union have been so vocal in their criticism of wokeness and the DEI agenda in universities.

Dr. Lee was a director of the Office of Equity, Social Justice, and Multicultural Education at De Anza College...until she started asking the wrong questions. After second-guessing the DEI and "anti-racist" policies in her department, Lee found that she had a target on her back. Although De Anza hired her to rein in the excesses of wokeness in the Office of Equity, she was ultimately fired. We talk about what happened...and whether dogmatic notions of diversity, equity, inclusion, social justice, and antiracism can be redeemed on American campuses.

Prof. Jenkins is associate professor of English at Georgia State University Perimeter College. He has served as both professor and dean at a number of different universities. As a Higher Education Fellow at the Leadership Institute's Campus Reform Online, he frequently writes about a number of problems in American schools. Further, he frequently gives training and talks on the topic of institutional leadership. We discuss the recent history of the English department in America, and we discuss how the DEI/woke agenda in higher education will impact students' capacities for leadership.

John Sailer is Senior Fellow and Director of University Policy for the National Association of Scholars (NAS), where his reporting on the implementation of DEI in university hiring has actually produced reforms in various institutions across the country. His work has been published in the Wall Street Journal, The Free Press, Unherd, and more. We discuss strategies for effectively fighting the diversity, equity, and inclusion agenda in higher education.

Prof. Yenor teaches political philosophy at Boise State University. Recently, he accepted a position as a Washington Fellow at the Claremont Institute's Center for the American Way of Life. Yenor's most recent book is entitled "The Recovery of Family Life: Exposing the Limits of Modern Ideologies." His talks at the National Conservatism conference on the subjects of feminism and the sexual revolution have triggered the campus left, the acolytes of which continue to nip at his heels. We discuss policy interventions that might counter the excesses of wokeness on America's university campuses and the in-roads that Gov. Ron DeSantis has made in Florida.

Prof. Wax needs no introduction. She is a medical doctor, and is currently a professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania. In the past, she worked in the Office of the Solicitor General in the U.S. Justice Department. In that capacity, she argued before the Supreme Court on over a dozen occasions. Her heterodox ideas (and her willingness to boldly speak them) has made her a target of the institutional left, on campus and off. Here, I ask Prof. Wax whether the university can be reclaimed from the woke ideologues. In addition, we briefly discuss the University of Pennsylvania's repeated attempts to censor and censure her -- and the status of her legal defense.

Dr. Matthew Wielicki recently made news when he announced that he would be leaving his tenure-track professorship in the Geological Sciences department of the University of Alabama. I talk with Dr. Wielicki about why he made this decision and how even the sciences are being corrupted by wokeness. We also discuss the hysteria surrounding climate alarmism.

Dr. Judith Curry has been at the forefront of the scientific debate about global climate change for decades. After serving as Chair of Georgia Tech's School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, she switched her status to Professor Emerita, citing an "anti-skeptic bias" in academic science. In addition to serving on NASA's Advisory Council on Earth Science, her most recent work has been as President of the Climate Forecast Applications Network. We discuss the ideological infection of the scientific community, the catastrophe unfolding in our universities, and the many ways that climate scientists, the media, the state, and NGOs exaggerate the threat of man-made climate change.

Dr. Mary Grabar is currently a Fellow at the Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization, Executive Director at DissidentProf.com, and frequent author of public writing on politics and culture at all the best publications. Most recently, she is author of two books: "Debunking Howard Zinn: Exposing the Fake History that Turned a Generation Against America" and "Debunking the 1619 Project: Exposing the Plan to Divide America." Having been "cancelled" in academia before "cancellation" was a familiar term, I talk with Dr. Grabar about her departure from academia, the abuses of tenure and academic freedom, and the schools' push to indoctrinate children to carry out a Communist cultural revolution.

After a colleague's reputation was unfairly attacked by a Title IX complaint, Dave Porter, then a professor of psychology at Berea College, began talking to students about the value of academic freedom and whether it is in tension with the right to learn in non-hostile environments. His inquiry set off a chain of events that led to Berea's dismissal of Prof. Porter. He joins me to explain the sequence of events in that affair, and he provides an update on the state of his lawsuit against Berea College. Further, we discuss the publication of his new study (published at PeerlessReview.org) entitled "How Hostile Environment Perceptions Imperil Academic Freedom: The Effects of Identity and Beliefs on Perceptions and Judgments."

Ryan Martin is a professor of statistics at North Carolina State University. He is also a co-founder of the Researchers.One platform for publishing scholarly research. After discussing Prof. Martin's most recent research, we talk about the predictive applications of statistics and the assumptions that undergird the field. Finally, we consider how statistical prediction impacts the political realm, with Prof. Martin explaining how a reorientation toward "imprecise probability" might improve the public reputation of his field, which is sometimes summarized by the phrase "Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics."

J.D. Haltigan is Assistant Professor of Psychology at University of Toronto, where his research focuses on developmental psychopathology -- specifically early caregiving and its effects on psychological development. The author of dozens of peer-reviewed publications, Haltigan is also the founder of a Substack publication called "The Multilevel Mailer," where he writes about the psychological effects of contemporary trends in society, culture, and technology. We talk about the politicization of psychology as a field, creeping wokeness in the medical industry and mental health care, and the troubling evidence that the kids are NOT (in fact) "alright."

Prof. Pedro Domingos has been at the forefront of the revolutions in artificial intelligence and machine learning for over two decades. In addition to conducting his teaching and research at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering of the University of Washington, he has worked closely with a variety of the biggest firms in the tech industry. His most recent book is "The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Re-Make Our World." Dr. Domingos has also been a vocal critic of the encroachment of woke/DEI ideology in the technology sector, smuggled in under the banner of "ethics." His opposition has put him at the center of controversy. We discuss his various run-ins with the woke contingent in his field, the promise of AI, the fate of the university, and (of course) a bit about stochastic parrots.

Dr. Elizabeth Weiss is a full professor of anthropology at San Jose State University, where her research focuses on the analysis of ancient human remains. She has published dozens of peer-reviewed research essays and a number of books. Her most recent co-authored book, "Repatriation and Erasing the Past," made her a target of the woke mob due to her opposition to new repatriation laws that require federally-funded institutions to return any artifacts deemed "sacred" by an indigenous people to the living descendants of the tribe (should they be requested). This resulted in an open letter signed by nearly 1,000 academics denouncing Weiss and her book. More recently, she was attacked for posting a photo of her holding a human skull on social media. We talk about the woke ideologues, the current state of anthropology, repatriation politics, and her current lawsuit against her university.

Prof. Gussow is a scholar of literature whose work has focused on blues music, racial history, and African American art. A well-known harmonica player, he is also one half of the blues duo "Satan and Adam." His writing on current events related to race has been particularly compelling, acknowledging the continuing legacy of American racial violence while refusing the facile, polarized interpretations of activists. We discuss the politics of race as it plays out on American campuses, and explore how woke activism actually hinders the pursuit of a just society.

Dr. Alex Petkas received his PhD in Classics from Princeton. His research interests include Greek literature, rhetoric, epistemology, and ethics. He recently resigned a tenure-track professorship, due in part to disenchantment with the DEI revolution in higher education. Alex has a number of scholarly publications. Known online as "Ancient Life Coach," Petkas is also host of the Cost of Glory podcast, which retells the lives of heroic figures from antiquity. We talk about the state of Classics as a scholarly discipline, his decision to leave academia, and his current projects. https://ancientlifecoach.com/

Prof. Bailey of Northwestern University has long been on the cutting edge of the science of gender non-conformity, sexual orientation, and sexual arousal. His most famous book -- The Man Who Would Be Queen -- is a compassionate but unflinching look at the biological realities and cultural manifestations of gender identity. Released over a decade before transgenderism became a topic of public debate, Bailey faced considerable criticism for the book. Nevertheless, his innovative research continues. We talk about sexual politics, the decline of the American university, and what can be done to save it. You can download The Man Who Would Be Queen here for free: https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/10530/the-man-who-would-be-queen-the-science-of-gender

In this episode, I talk to Stuart Reges, Teaching Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington. A veteran of campus politics, Reges talks to me about his pending lawsuit against the university for violating his First Amendment rights. After they encouraged faculty to include a "land acknowledgement statement" on their syllabi, they censored the one that Reges wrote. We also talk about LGBT activism on campus, the funding of campus DEI initiatives, and the controversy around his recent essay entitled "Why Women Don't Code."

After decades in academia, Prof. Manson recently made national news when he announced via his blog that he was resigning his full professorship at UCLA. Like so many other faculty members across the country, the woke revolution had ensured that he could no longer meaningfully perform his duties as a teacher and a scholar. In this episode, we talk about the events that led up to his decision, the politicization of the discipline of anthropology, and the soft antisemitism that exists on American campuses.

My guest on Episode 7 of "Whither the Looniversity?" is Prof. Nicholas Giordano, who teaches political science at Suffolk Community College. Nicholas is the founder of the PAS Report, which offers political analysis and strategies, and he hosts a regular podcast on politics. Before teaching at the college level, Prof. Giordano worked with the Department of Homeland Security. He has written for many outlets including the New York Post and Campus Reform. We discuss the state of political science departments, the future of the university, and the role of community colleges in American higher education.

Harry Crane is a professor of statistics at Rutgers University and Co-Founder of Researchers.One, an online platform for scholarly publishing that restores the process of peer review to its proper function. We discuss the problems of the peer review process as it currently exists and how it has been infiltrated by ideological interests. In addition, we speculate on how much longer the legacy print model of scholarly publication can endure, how wokeness is manifested in STEM disciplines, and how/whether the proper functions of the university can be restored.

Dr. Wood has nearly four decades working in and around academia. He has been a tenured professor, a Provost, and he has served in a variety of other administration positions within the university. He is now President of the National Association of Scholars, a group that advocates on behalf of faculty whose rights have been ignored by their institutions, in addition to advocating for policy reform in higher education. His most recent book is Wrath: America Enraged, and a new edition of his book 1620: A Critical Response to the 1619 Project will be published shortly. In addition to his scholarly work, his writing has appeared in many of the highest-profile publications covering politics and culture in the country.

Dr. Robinson holds a PhD in political science, but seeing the decay of the American academy, she opted to devote her energies to restoring a culture of excellence in our universities, rather than taking on a professorship. As President of the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, she advocates for institutional and cultural reforms that will ensure that higher education in America is able to perform its vital functions for the nation. We discuss academic standard, tuition costs, the student loan racket, and the problem of accreditation.

Prof. Smith is an expert in the field of rhetoric. He also happens to be a black man. When he challenged the assumptions of self-professed “anti-racists” in a forum for academics and intellectuals in his field, the mob turned on him – calling him a racist and a proponent of white supremacy. This affair was an experience that eventually led to him helping to form Free Black Thought – an online outlet showcasing the work of heterodox black thinkers.

Prof. Staddon is one of the most prominent researchers in the modern history of American and British behavioral science. Never afraid to speak up to ideological chauvinists, his most recent dust-up occurred when he was removed from the message board of the American Psychological Association for challenging pseudo-scientific claims about sex and gender.

Prof. Negy has never shied away from controversy, and in the summer of 2020 he made some posts on his personal social media account that were critical of the BLM riots. Soon thereafter, the University of Central Florida set in motion a coordinated attack on his career that would culminate in their firing of a tenured professor. Negy tells us about how he fought this unfair termination, fresh off of being reinstated to his position after his victory in arbitration. Further we discuss the dysfunction of the American university, and how it might be fixed.