Democracy depends on the free exchange of ideas. Help sustain it with a tax-deductible donation today.
Christopher Newfield is Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus at the University of California, Santa Barbara, former president of the Modern Language Association, and Director of Research at the Independent Social Research Foundation in London. His most recent book is The Great Mistake: How We Wrecked Public Universities and How We Can Fix Them.
Institutional reform is no match for pervasive structural inequality.
A political and literary forum, independent and nonprofit since 1975. Registered 501(c)(3) organization. Learn more about our mission
For National Poetry Month, sign up for our newsletter and get a digital copy of our out-of-print chapbook Poems for Political Disaster—with work by Jorie Graham, Ilya Kaminsky, Solmaz Sharif, Juan Felipe Herrera, and much more.
Newsletter subscribers get our latest essays, reading lists, and exclusive editorial content (plus 10% off our entire store).
For National Poetry Month, sign up for our newsletter and get a digital copy of our out-of-print chapbook Poems for Political Disaster.