Rather than pontificate on academic freedom, important though it is right now, I want to reflect on academic joy, about what can be so exciting about the life of the mind—even in the modern university.
The great books aren’t just a collection of “dead white males,” and teaching or reading them isn’t elitist or Eurocentric. On the contrary, they are a treasure that should be made available and accessible to working-class people everywhere.
Building on the concept of the "Long March Through the Institutions," Brazil's landless workers movement, continuing to organize after 40 years of struggle, offers lessons on engaging the system without being co-opted.
Community education cannot be considered an “add-on” — we must center it as an integral part of our ongoing organizing. We need to understand the need for political education-- taking lessons from work on Israel/Palestine and anti-Islamophobia.
This new defense of a humanities education is a must read, says reviewer Meranze, "for anyone concerned with the relationship between humanistic activity and American democracy."
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