AKA Review– July 29, 2022

From Inside Higher Education:
My Amy Wax Problem
By Jonathan Zimmerman

UPenn professor Jonathan Zimmerman responds to law professor Amy Wax’s claim that, in trying to sanction her for “intentional and incessant racist, sexist, xenophobic, and homophobic actions and statements,” Penn is simply attempting to stifle dissenting views. In his reply, Zimmerman distinguishes speech that champions unpopular, even abhorrent, beliefs from behavior that disparages individual students and colleagues and argues that academic freedom should not be used to justify anything a professor does. Read this article

From Slate:
Humanities scholarship labor crisis: How the infrastructure of research is falling apart
By John Warner
The author counters the opinion of University of Texas history professor, Steven Mintz, that to revitalize humanities scholarship, faculty members should more readily participate in the “gift-giving economy” of reviewing articles submitted for publication without compensation. This approach assisted an older generation of faculty to be promoted and tenured, but Warner argues that nowadays faculty are less incentivized to review articles for free because it no longer results in a similar career advancement. Read this article

From Artnet News:
Museums Need to Be Braver. Here’s How College and University Art Galleries Can Offer the Sector at Large a Roadmap for Reinvention
By Christina Olsen
Campus-based museums have long played an outsized role in making the visual-arts ecosystem more equitable and accessible. Christina Olson, Director of the University of Michigan Museum of Art, suggests five ways campus museums model reinvention of the museum sector: honoring people rather than objects; giving the public a stake in acquisitions and curation; challenging a canon rife with discrimination and misogyny; promoting local artists; and interrogating how museums construct and produce knowledge. Read this article

From U.S. News:
To Combat Climate Anxiety, College Students Are Taking Matters Into Their Own Hands. Literally.
By Mackenzie Feldman and Sheina Crystal
To combat the growing “climate anxiety” they experience from having grown up amid the climate crisis, some students are taking matters into their own hands by becoming active in campus environmental initiatives. Herbicide-Free Campus, highlighted in this article, strives to eradicate synthetic herbicides from college campuses. Students aligned with these organizations say joining has helped alleviate some of their anxiety because they are “not just sitting idly by” but taking an active role in combatting climate change in their communities. Read this article

From Inside Higher Education:
Virtual Reality Boosts Students’ Empathy for Nature
By Susan D'Agostino
“Your arms morph into flippers.” An opening line more suited to a blockbuster movie than a classroom. But the VR project it describes, in which students viscerally experience threatened animal habitats, is compelling for the evidence showing it increases students’ empathy for endangered species and motivation to protect them. At a moment when the public sees inadequate focus on environmental threats, tools like VR that create a sense of wonder about the planet may help generate much-needed urgency. Read this article