The Autocratic Academy

A public lecture by Professor Timothy V. Kaufman-Osborn and a celebration of his new book, The Autocratic Academy (Duke Press, 2023)

Critics of contemporary US higher education often point to the academy’s “corporatization” as one of its defining maladies. However, in The Autocratic Academy Timothy V. Kaufman-Osborn argues that American colleges and universities have always been organized as corporations in which the power to rule is legally vested in and monopolized by antidemocratic governing boards. This institutional form, Kaufman-Osborn contends, is antithetical to the free inquiry that defines the purpose of higher education.

This event is sponsored by the Department of Politics and the Whitman-AAUP. A reception will follow in the Olin Hall foyer.