Departments

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critical race theory

  • SOURCE: New York Magazine
    5/30/2023

    The Other Mothers Fighting the School Wars

    Although Moms For Liberty was the early entrant into the current battles over curriculum, race and LGBTQ policies in schools, other groups have mobilized their identities as mothers to fight the right's efforts. Historians Adam Laats and Stacie Taranto note that school politics have often hinged on who could leverage motherhood as a political force. 

  • SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
    5/23/2023

    Scholars Stage Teach-in on Racism in DeSantis's Back Yard

    Yohuru Williams and the Institute for Common Power, directed by Terry Anne Scott, convened a 24-hour teach-in in St. Petersburg to draw attention to the connections between inclusive history lessons and functioning democracy. 

  • SOURCE: Truthout
    5/18/2023

    George Yancy and Joe Feagin on How to Fight Back Against Book Bans

    The sociologist, whose books on racism have been banned, argues "U.S. book banning has been widespread and routinely targeted books with diverse ideas and perspectives for centuries now, especially those challenging white conservative sociopolitical ideas, norms and values."

  • SOURCE: CNN
    5/15/2023

    I'm Headed to Florida to Teach-In Against DeSantis's Education Policies

    by Kellie Carter Jackson

    This May 17 saw a 24-hour teach-in by historians in St. Petersburg, Florida, to protest the restrictions on curriculum, books and ideas pushed by Governor Ron DeSantis and his allies. As a historian of abolition, the author stresses that denying people the pen may influence them to pick up the sword. 

  • SOURCE: Daily Beast
    5/17/2023

    Florida Just Banned Everything I Teach

    by William Horne

    Black historians during the Jim Crow era observed that the history taught in schools justified slavery, segregation, and lynching. A professor thinks that's where Ron DeSantis's vision of history is headed. Some politicians may think curriculum is a winning issue, but students and society will lose. 

  • SOURCE: The New Yorker
    5/18/2023

    The Fight for the Soul of a Missouri School Board

    by Sue Halpern

    Even in a conservative community in southwestern Missouri, a grassroots group of parents and students has rallied to oppose right-wing efforts to restrict books available in the local public schools. 

  • SOURCE: NC Newsline
    5/15/2023

    North Carolina Introduces its own History Bill; Historians Call Foul

    State legislators say they are ensuring that students at North Carolina colleges are taught core concepts in American history. Historians Jay Smith and William Sturkey argue that, since the legislature would determine the content of a mandatory course it amounts to indoctrination and token coverage of Black history. 

  • SOURCE: Washington Post
    5/10/2023

    Florida Rejects Social Studies Topics on Communism, "Taking a Knee"

    by Valerie Strauss

    After rejecting more than 80 percent of proposed materials for K-12 social studies courses, Florida accepted many revised materials but still rejected 35 percent. Topics refused? Social justice in the Hebrew Bible, national anthem protests, and prosperous countries with socialist economies. 

  • SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
    5/11/2023

    Florida Senate Rejects DeSantis Pick for New College Trustee Board

    Eddie Speir, whose prior experience in education was running a private K-12 religious school, was rejected by the Florida Senate after having participated in board meetings at the New College of Florida as an interim Trustee. What distinguishes Speir from Governor Ron DeSantis's other appointees? 

  • SOURCE: PEN America
    5/1/2023

    Academic Freedom Battleground Shifts from Classroom to Institutions

    by Jeffrey Sachs, Jeremy C. Young and Jonathan Friedman

    Conservative leaders like Adam Kissel are advising lawmakers to defeat First Amendment protections for what professors say in the classroom by shifting legislation's focus to defining concepts as outside the bounds of academic disciplines and academic fields as outside the bounds of the university's mission. 

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    4/29/2023

    Inside the New New College

    by Michelle Goldberg

    Hopes that the incoming regime at the New College of Florida would tread lightly on the school's unique culture were dashed by administrative moves to recruit student athletes, establish fraternities and sororities, and deny tenure to the faculty members who sought it this year. 

  • SOURCE: New York Review of Books
    5/2/2023

    1776 vs. 1619: Hillsdale College Enters the History Wars

    by Adam Hochshild

    If conservatives are against "woke" history education, what, exactly, are they for? There's much to be learned from the curriculum created by the Michigan christian college, which presents a jarring contrast with the themes presented in the new Hulu documentary series based on Nikole Hannah-Jones's 1619 Project. 

  • SOURCE: Business Insider
    4/16/2023

    Will Louisiana Ban Study of Racism Outright?

    Republican state officials in a party resolution appear to hold the position that "inglorious aspects" of American history are too divisive to be discussed in state institutions of highe education. 

  • SOURCE: Al Jazeera
    3/31/2023

    Laws Like Florida Will Put Burden of Purposeful Ignorance on University Teachers

    by Donald Earl Collins

    University faculty who don't feel affected by the fight to take issues of race, gender and sexuality out of the K-12 curriculum need to be prepared for students who have been trained to think of ignorance as praiseworthy, part of a campaign to make it too exhausting for teachers to bother fighting that ignorance. 

  • SOURCE: Washington Post
    4/5/2023

    Fighting Book Bans—and Winning

    by Alyssa Rosenberg

    Although book-banners have the attention of the media and are being used by politicians to create wedge issues, it's important to remember that the policy is unpopular, and can be resisted.