Conservatism, Higher Education, and Trumpism

Do the left and right share a common interest when it comes to defending American higher education? As the Trump administration initiates unprecedented attacks on colleges and universities, some conservatives are standing firm in upholding the value of liberal education.

This webinar features two of them — political scientists Jon Shields of Claremont McKenna College and Jonathan Marks of Ursinus College. Shields and Marks will share their perspectives on what conservatism could contribute to the struggle to protect American higher education.

The discussion will be moderated by Eric Mlyn, director of the project on Democracy and the Politics of American Higher Education at the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University. The webinar will close with a Q&A.

Register for this event here.

Speakers:

Jon Shields a professor of American politics and chair of the government department at Claremont McKenna College. He is the author or co-author of three books on the American right: “Trump’s Democrats” (Brookings, 2020), “Passing on the Right: Conservative Professors in the Progressive University” (Oxford University Press, 2016), and “The Democratic Virtues of the Christian Right” (Princeton University Press, 2009).

Jonathan Marks is a professor of politics at Ursinus College. He is the author of “Let’s Be Reasonable: A Conservative Case for Liberal Education” (Princeton University Press, 2021). Marks also has written on higher education for Inside Higher Ed, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Weekly Standard, The Wall Street Journal, Commentary Magazine, The Dispatch, and The Bulwark.

Moderator:

Eric Mlyn is Distinguished Faculty Fellow at the Kenan Institute for Ethics and Lecturer at the Sanford School for Public Policy, Duke University. His intellectual interests focus on the role of higher education in fostering democracy and working with undergraduates to foster political and civic engagement. He is the Co-Editor with Amanda Moore McBride of the book “Connecting Social Innovation and Civic Engagement: Toward Higher Education’s Democratic Promise” (2020).