A New Leader in the Push for Diversity of Thought on Campus
As of this year, more than 1,500 college professors and a couple hundred graduate students have joined Heterodox Academy, a nonprofit founded in 2015 on the premise that research and teaching suffer when college campuses lack diverse viewpoints.
Amid recent tumult in academia, where student protests have been common and clashes over free speech and intellectual inquiry have made national headlines, these academics agreed with the view that university life requires encountering different perspectives in an environment where people are free to constructively challenge one another. “I am concerned that many academic fields and universities currently lack sufficient viewpoint diversity, particularly political diversity,” a statement of principles that they all signed as a condition of affiliating with the organization concludes. “I will support viewpoint diversity in my academic field, my university, my department, and my classroom.”
Today, the organization is announcing a new leader: Debra Mashek, a tenured professor of psychology at Harvey Mudd College who will keep teaching there until the end of the spring semester, when she will move to New York City for the new role. What follows is an edited interview that I conducted with her. We discussed the problems she perceives on campus and the changes she intends to work toward.
Conor Friedersdorf: It’s a big thing to walk away from a tenured job as an academic.
Debra Mashek: Yes, I’m leaving my dream job at a college that I love with these students and colleagues who impress and inspire on a near daily basis. I love the academy. I have this deep sense of gratitude for my own education. I value education as this amazing, equalizing platform, but I also worry about the academy.
I’m hearing the stories of the blowups and the shout-downs and the shutdowns, and I worry that we’re, which ends up being a caricature of a position. I think it’s important to engage with the people who actually hold those differentpositions.
