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Education

Class & Inequality

Beyond the Neoliberal University

Astra Taylor talks with Rutgers faculty union president Todd Wolfson about organizing academic communities in the age of COVID-19.

Todd Wolfson, Astra Taylor

Class & Inequality

Who Pays for Cheap Language Instruction?

Media stories praising online language learning as an inexpensive way to take a “vacation” during COVID-19 have expressed astonishingly little curiosity about the conditions under which gig-economy language teachers labor.

Yuliya Komska, Alberto Bruzos Moro, Roberto Rey Agudo

Race

Black Bereavement, White Condolences

“This sudden attention to the ongoing grief of black life can also feel like a slap in the face. Didn’t you notice we were dying?”

Marina Magloire

Race

Decolonizing the University

In this interview, Lorgia García-Peña, who was denied tenure by Harvard in late 2019, discusses why ethnic studies has never been more urgent and the important role it can play in protest.

Lorgia García-Peña, Mordecai Lyon

Arts in Society

Teaching African American Literature During COVID-19

“In a season of unimaginable death, my students emerged as visionaries. I hope to live to see the world they create." 

Farah Jasmine Griffin

Class & Inequality

Deaths of Despair

Boston Review talks with Nobel Prize-winning economist Angus Deaton about COVID-19, the relationship between culture, financial hardship, and health, and why capitalism’s flaws are proving fatal for America’s working class. 

Joshua Cohen, Angus Deaton

Forum

Higher Education in the Age of Coronavirus

Besides overturning the very structure of higher education virtually overnight, COVID-19 will also accelerate a number of troubling longer-term trends.

Jeffrey Aaron Snyder

Class & Inequality

High Stakes Tests Aren't Better—And They Never Will Be

Accountability is important. But tests that tie school funding to student performance only make things worse.

Lelac Almagor

Politics

Loving Latin at the End of the World

Many revere Latin as the soul of Western civilization. But its beauty should not keep us from reckoning with its history.

Joel Christensen

Law & Justice

College Behind Bars

One man’s struggle to earn a degree while incarcerated shows how far tough-on-crime policies go to prevent prisoners from having a second chance.

Shannon Ross

Class & Inequality, Law & Justice

The Harvard Ruling Misses the Point

A judge has ruled in favor of Harvard in a high-profile case about affirmative action. But recent admissions scandals all point to a deeper problem—the presumption that elitism could ever be democratized.

Richard Ford

Arts in Society

Got Shakespeare?

When conservatives declare the death of the English major, they highlight the need for the critical thinking skills that English departments excel at teaching.

Jonathan Beecher Field

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THINKING IN A PANDEMIC

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