The straight college strikes back!

References and suggested readings:

• Richard S. Price. October 6, 2025. The straight college strikes back: 1990s backlash against inclusive campuses. Politics, Groups, and Identities.
• Megan Brenan. May 29, 2025. “Record Party Divide 10 Years After Same-Sex Marriage Ruling.” Gallup.
• David A. Reichard. 2024. Here Are My People: LGBT College Student Organizing in California. University of Georgia Press.
• Lawrence Glickman. May 21, 2020. “How White Backlash Controls American Progress.” The Atlantic.
• Hannah Kaner’s Fallen Gods Trilogy: Faithbreaker (2025); Sunbringer (2024); Godkiller (2023)
• Ellen Schrecker. 2025. The Lost Promise: American Universities in the 1960s. University of Chicago Press.
• adventuresincensorship.com

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References and suggested readings:

• Alison Bashford. 2025. Decoding the Hand: A History of Science, Medicine, and Magic. University of Chicago Press.
• Naomi Oreskes. 2003. Plate Tectonics: An Insider's History Of The Modern Theory Of The Earth. CRC Books.
• Alison Bashford faculty page

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Get updates about the show at patreon.com/americancampuspodcast

Get in touch. Want to request a topic or pitch an episode? Email Lauren at shephell@iu.edu

grift, edtech, enshittification

References and suggested readings:

• Justin Raden. October 23, 2025. Higher Ed’s Rush to Adopt AI is About So Much More Than AI. Defector.
• American Vandal podcast and Substack
• Moira Weigel. “Palantir Goes to the Frankfurt School.” b2o
• Molly White [citation needed]
• Gil Durán. 2026. The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy. Simon & Schuster.
• Edward Zitron Where’s Your Ed At?
• Melinda Cooper. 2024. Counterrevolution: Extravagance and Austerity in Public Finance. Zone Books.
• Quinn Slobodian. 2025. Hayek's Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right. Zone Books.
• Justin Raden on Bluesky @jraden.bsky.social
• Sarah Osment tweets (follow for Mike Davis reading group in January 2026)
• faculty email jraden1@olemiss.edu

Support the show

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Get in touch. Want to request a topic or pitch an episode? Email Lauren at shephell@iu.edu

References and suggested readings:

• Celene Reynolds. 2025. Unlawful Advances: How Feminists Transformed Title IX. Princeton University Press.
• “What colleges (don’t) do about sexual violence with Nicole Bedera.” American Campus Podcast. May 28, 2025.
• Susan Faludi. 2006. Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women. Crown.
• Juliet Hooker. 2025. Black Grief/White Grievance: The Politics of Loss. Princeton University Press.
• Celene Reynolds’ faculty page

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Brought to us, in part, by the race scientists

References mentioned this episode:

• Henry Reichman. 2025. Understanding Academic Freedom, 2nd edition. Johns Hopkins University Press.
• J. McKeen Cattell. 1913. University Control.
• Joy Ann Williamson-Lott. 2018. Jim Crow Campus: Higher Education and the Struggle for a New Southern Social Order. Teachers College Press.
• Lauren Lassabe Shepherd. 2025. Whose Side are Administrators On? HNN.
• Russell Banks. 2007. Continental Drift. Ecco.
• AAUP’s Academe blog
• Hank Reichman on Bluesky @hankreichman.bsky.social
• AAUP’s At-Large chapter for anyone!
• AAUP resources

Support the show

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“The reasons that I have for wishing to go to Harvard are several. I feel that Harvard can give me a better background and a better liberal education than any other university. I have always wanted to go there, as I have felt that it is not just another college, but is a university with something definite to offer. Then too, I would like to go to the same college as my father. To be a "Harvard man" is an enviable distinction, and one that I sincerely hope I shall attain.” -John F. Kennedy, April 23, 1935

References:

• JFK's Harvard application, 1935. John F. Kennedy Library.
• bell hooks. All About Love.
• Torrey Peters. 2025. Stag Dance. Random House.
• Laura Garbes. 2025. Listeners Like Who? Exclusion and Resistance in the Public Radio Industry. Princeton University Press.
• pskconsulting.org
• Email prabh at pkehal@pskconsulting.org
• Sikh LGBTQIA+ Oral History Archive qtsikharchive.org

Support the show

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Oh my!

References and suggested readings:

• Naomi Oreskes. 2025. Science on a Mission: How Military Funding Shaped What We Do and Don’t Know about the Ocean. University of Chicago Press.
• Naomi Oreskes. 2021. Why Trust Science? Princeton University Press.
• Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway. 2011. Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Climate Change. Bloomsbury.
• Naomi Oreskes. 2025. The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market. Bloomsbury.
• Percival Everett. 2024. James. Doubleday.
• Andrew Ross Sorkin. 2025. 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History--and How It Shattered a Nation. Viking.
• Naomi Oreskes faculty page, LinkedIn, and Bluesky

Support the show

Browse the American Campus bookshelf at https://bookshop.org/lists/american-campus-podcast

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Get in touch. Want to request a topic or pitch an episode? Email Lauren at shephell@iu.edu

References and suggested readings:

• Andy Hines, ed. 2025. University Keywords. Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Alyssa Battistoni. 2025. Free Gifts: Capitalism and the Politics of Nature. Princeton University Press.
• Emily Callaci. 2020. “On Acknowledgments.” American Historical Review 125 (1): 126–31.
• Justin Raden. October 23, 2025. Higher Ed's Rush To Adopt AI Is About So Much More Than AI. Defector.
• Bluesky @andyhines.bsky.social
• aydelotte.swarthmore.edu
• @AydelotteFoundation on Instagram
• Abbie Boggs, Eli Meyerhoff, Nick Mitchell, and Zach Schwartz-Weinstein. January 19, 2022. Abolitionist University Studies: An Invitation. Viewpoint Magazine.
• Abolish the University? Pamphlet, Abolitionist University Studies
• Email Lauren at shephell@iu.edu to join the Political Economy of the Academy group

Support the show

Browse the American Campus bookshelf at https://bookshop.org/lists/american-campus-podcast

Get updates about the show at patreon.com/americancampuspodcast

Get in touch. Want to request a topic or pitch an episode? Email Lauren at shephell@iu.edu