Understanding the dynamics of campus politics

January 23, 2020

Although universities and colleges have long been considered sites for open enquiry and free exchange of ideas, the wave of controversy that has swept the American academy in recent years contradicts this belief. In this book talk, Dr. Jonathan Zimmerman unpacks the history, causes, and manifestations of these contemporary political developments, analyzing the implications of the goals of social justice such as political correctness, affirmative action, speech policing, in-loco parentis administration, trigger warnings and safe spaces on academic freedom, and free speech.

Dr. Jonathan Zimmerman

Professor, University of Pennsylvania

Jonathan Zimmerman is Professor of History of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. A former Peace Corps volunteer and high school social studies teacher, Zimmerman is the author of The Amateur Hour: A History of College Teaching in America (forthcoming from Johns Hopkins University Press in October) and seven other books. He is also a frequent contributor to the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New York Review of Books, and other popular periodicals. Before coming to Penn in 2016, Zimmerman taught at New York University for 20 years. In 2008 he received NYU's Distinguished Teaching Award, its highest recognition for teaching.