For the past decade, Michael Clune has "watched in horror" as professors in higher education have hurtled toward what he calls an "existential crisis"—academics who've morphed into what he calls activists, with "nearly every scholar now [justifying] their work in political terms." Writing for the Chronicle of Higher Education, Clune says a push for social justice has infiltrated not only the humanities, but even science and math, a "wrongheaded" approach that Clune, an English professor at Case Western Reserve University, says has turned professors into "sitting ducks." Among Clune's arguments against political positions in academia—on everything from race and immigration to the COVID pandemic and President-elect Trump—is one that posits instructors may be well versed in their respective fields, but not in "political judgment."
"The spectacle of English professors pontificating to their captive classroom audiences on the evils of capitalism, the correct way to deal with climate change, or the fascist tendencies of their political opponents is simply an abuse of power," he notes. Professors at elite schools especially aren't the best representatives to preach to the working class, Clune says, and politicized teaching can end up doing more harm than good. "Professors are bad at politics, and politicized professors are bad for their own politics," he writes. Clune says today's instructors should back away from activism and "articulate a different set of shared values," ones that emerge "from our demonstrated expertise and commitment to high standards of evidence and argument." Those, he says, "are the grounds of the academic freedom by which we claim to pursue knowledge without fear of political pressure." More here. (More professor stories.)
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