Brian Leiter's Blog, page 14

A message to international students and faculty

Philosopher Gregory Fried kindly gave permission to share this very apt message about the lastest Trump stupidity that he sent to students and colleagues; I endorse its sentiments fully! Dear Students, Colleagues, Friends, I am writing to students and colleagues...

RFK Jr's plan to kill us all: bird flu edition

Unbelievable: The Trump administration has delivered its latest blow to vaccines, canceling a nearly $600-million contract to the drugmaker Moderna that was intended to develop a shot for humans against bird flu. The decision also forfeited the U.S. government���s right...

Great moments in obscure blues that Led Zeppelin "borrowed": Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy, "When the Levee Breaks," 1929

While poets, according to Harold Bloom, suffered from the anxiety attending the influence of earlier poets, Led Zeppelin suffered nothing similar, borrowing rather freely (and sometimes without attribution) from the American blues canon. The originals are often forgotten. Here's one,...

Apt remarks by economist Glenn Loury on the universities and their critics (like the imbecile Christopher Rufo)

Here: [T]hese universities, and Harvard is at the pinnacle of an exquisite system of intellectual production, are places of real mastery. That���s true in the sciences, the social sciences, and in the humanities. The people who get tenure at these...

Harvard strips tenure from and fires embattled HBS psychologist Francesca Gino

Here. At one time, she was one of the five highest paid faculty at Harvard, earning one million dollars a year (business school professors are very good at ratcheting their salaries up!). I suppose so much money, which no doubt...

Memorial events for Larry Sklar at the University of Michigan

Philosopher Laura Ruetsche writes: Next week we're having a few events in Larry Sklar's memory. One is a celebration of life held in Ann Arbor, June 5, with an option for zoom participation. Another is a June 6 workshop featuring...

Republican budget bill would eliminate Pell grant eligibility for about 20% of students who currently get them

Not surprising that the Republicans are doing this (they're having a lot of trouble being the "working class party," aren't they?), but in addition to creating financial distress for students it will prove another budgetary problem for many universities.

Can there be a "theory of everything"?

Philosopher Stephan Hartmann comments.

On leaving America

The NYT put together a video about three Yale professors--two historians and philosopher Jason Stanley--who are leaving Trump's America to go to the University of Toronto. I had repeatedly urged Jason to take the Toronto job, because of the direction...

The latest lawlessness by the Trumpistas against Harvard

The Department of Homeland Security informed Harvard that it can no longer enroll international students, and Harvard has sued for this brazen First Amendment violation and will seek, and get, a temporary restraining order against the government. What is extraordinary...