Professor C. L. Mohr
OFFICE HOURS:
HUMB 344 Tu: 10:00 — 11:30, Wed: 1 — 2
By appointment at other times
Focusing on the years since 1945, this weekly seminar will examine the interrelationships between American higher learning and the forces of political, economic, and social change during the twentieth century. With each passing decade since 1900 the boundaries separating colleges and universities from the outside world have grown less distinct and more permeable. Thus, in broad terms, our task will be one of considering how the inner life of academic institutions has evolved in response to pressure from multiple (and changing) constituencies, both internal and external. Among the specific sets of relationships to be explored are those involving women and the academic community, students and professors or administrators, ethic minorities and majorities, athletic enthusiasts and college officials, academic researchers and their sponsors--corporate, philanthropic, and governmental (civilian, and military).
The class will give special attention southern colleges and universities, weighing their accomplishments and strengths against the obstacles created by regional poverty, isolation, racial prejudice, intellectual intolerance, and political indifference. We will consider how national developments have influenced southern higher learning and we will explore how and why the south has departed from national norms.
Persons who enroll in this class should expect to read a minimum of 100 pages per week from the books and articles on the accompanying list and additional photocopied material. After a brief introduction to the historical scholarship on American higher education, there will be weekly reading and discussion on the following major themes:
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1. |
Baby Boomers Meet the "Knowledge Industry:" The New Educational Landscape of Postwar America |
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2. |
"College Men," Outsiders, and Intellectual Rebels: The Development of Student Subcultures among college undergraduates |
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3. |
Women’s Educational Experiences: Rising Aspirations and Conflicting Demands |
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4. |
Academic Freedom: McCarthyism with a Southern Accent |
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5. |
Crisis of the Old Order: Southern Colleges and Racial Desegregation |
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6. |
Conscience and Conflict: Campus activism in the 1960s |
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7 |
The Cash Value of an Idea: The 1980s and Beyond |
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Most reading assignments will encompass two or more of the above themes, and one of the seminar’s goals will be to explore connections over time between subjects that seem at first glance to be unrelated.
Course Requirements
of assigned reading ____________________ 33 1/3% of final grade
"position" papers based upon critical
assessment of assigned reading ___________ 33 1/3% of final grade
exploring one of the subjects covered
in assigned readings ____________________ 33 1/3% of final grade
Each student will meet individually with me to chose a topic and develop a research strategy. It is assumed that papers will combine material from the assigned reading with limited research in original sources. Papers exploring the history of the University of South Alabama are encouraged.
REQUIRED TEXTS
Clark Kerr, The Uses of the University (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963)
Barbara M. Solomon, In the Company of Educated Women: A History of Women and Higher Education in America. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1985)
Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz, Campus Life: Undergraduate Cultures from the End of
the Eighteenth Century to the Present (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987)
Philip G. Altbach, Student Politics in America: A Historical Analysis. (New Brunswick and London: Transaction Publishers, 1997)
"Southern Higher Education in the 20th Century" [History of Higher Education Annual 19(1999)]
Nadine Cohodas, The Band Played Dixie: Race and the Liberal Conscience at Ole Miss (New York: Simon & Schuster,1995)
Additional articles will be available on library reserve