When Grad School Was Daring, Irreverent, and Fun: A Reminiscence

Academia, says Mark Bauerlein, has become “a sour and humorless habitat, but it wasn’t always that way. Forty years ago cancel culture didn’t exist, political correctness was a minor phenomenon, and the two-hour seminar was exciting.”  Academic celebrities of that earlier era, such as Derrida and Foucault, are often (and mistakenly) blamed for our current woes, says Bauerlein, yet they were fun and iconoclastic, and they inspired rousing discussion and irreverent attitudes. “In this talk,” he says, “I wish to bring back the spirit of play that prevailed in 1982. The thrill is now gone: what happened?”

Event co-sponsors: Department of Literatures in English and Heterodox Academy

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