Lauren RubensteinPresident Michael Roth is the author of an op-ed in The Hartford Courant about the debate raging at Wesleyan over questions of race, oppression and free speech. The controversy was sparked by an op-ed written by a sophomore and published in The Wesleyan Argus in September, which raised questions critical of the Black Lives Matter movement. Many students were upset by the op-ed and called for boycotting the Argus. Roth writes: They made the important point that opinion pieces like these facilitate the ongoing marginalization of a sector of our student population; and they angrily accused the Argus of contributing to that marginalization. I'm very glad these important…
The Washington Post published a remembrance by President Michael Roth of Carl Schorske, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian who died this month at age 100. Schorske taught at Wesleyan for many years, and was a mentor to Roth. Roth writes: Carl was the great historian of anti-historical thinking. What does that mean? He charted how at times a wave of culture makers attempted to break free of any connection to the past. But Carl, with care and precision, wove their rejection of history into a narrative that made meaning out of context and change over time. In his masterwork, “Fin de Siècle Vienna:…
President Michael Roth reviewed Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning by Timothy Snyder in The Washington Post. While many other historians have emphasized structural elements that made the Holocaust possible, Snyder focuses on Hitler's personal ideology "as essential for grasping the history of Nazi efforts to eliminate Jews from the planet." Roth writes: In “Black Earth,” we are reminded that for Hitler, Jews were the explanation for everything that went wrong. The health of the human race was dependent, he shrieked, on protecting it from Jewish pollution. There was talk among Nazis and others of isolating the malignancy — maybe shipping Jews…
Olivia DrakePresident Michael Roth spoke to families in Memorial Chapel on Arrival Day, Sept. 2. He urged students to explore parts of the curriculum beyond their comfort zone and to discover what they love to do, get better at it, and share it with others. "It’s an extraordinarily exciting time to be starting at Wesleyan,” he said. “There are tremendous resources across this place; there are people with extraordinary ideas.… Students should find the people from whom they can learn most deeply." Watch his remarks, which appeared on The Huffington Post homepage, below:
Writing for Inside Sources, President Michael Roth made the case for a broad, contextual education, in a counterpoint to an essay by Eastern Kentucky University President Michael Benson, arguing for education that provides "a transferable set of skills." Roth writes that the types of contentious debates currently raging over the value of a college education are as old as America itself, something he explores in-depth in his book, Beyond the University: Why Liberal Education Matters. He writes: Several of the Founding Fathers saw education as the road to independence and liberty. A broad commitment to inquiry was part of their dedication…
Seventy-five years after Sigmund Freud's death, the father of psychoanalysis' couch has remained a powerful symbol in our culture. The public radio show 99% Invisible interviewed President Michael Roth, a Freud historian, for an episode exploring the history and cultural significance of Freud's couch. Freud, and others of his time, used a couch as part of hypnosis--a cutting edge but controversial treatment. One of Freud's patients, a wealthy woman named Franny Moser who was struggling from multiple ailments, proved difficult to hypnotize. "He wasn't a very good hypnotist. He was kind of a clumsy hypnotist," explained Roth. "Freud would say, 'You're getting sleepy,…
Wesleyan President Michael Roth made the following remarks during the 183rd Commencement Ceremony May 24: Members of the board of trustees, members of the faculty and staff, distinguished guests, new recipients of graduate degrees and the mighty class of 2015, I am honored to present some brief remarks on the occasion of this commencement. On this Memorial Day Weekend, I begin by asking us all to take a moment to remember the men and women who have died while serving in the American armed forces. In recent years, military conflicts far from our own shores have cost the lives of…
Reviewing Oliver Sacks' new memoir, On the Move, in The Atlantic, President Michael Roth writes that the celebrated neurologist "opens himself to recognition, much as he has opened the lives of others to being recognized in their fullness." The memoir begins in Sacks' early life, when a teacher noted in his report card that "Sacks will go far, if he does not go too far." Sacks describes going to extremes in areas of his life ranging from recreational swimming to competitive weightlifting to drug use. A native of England, Sacks traveled to the United States after completing his medical training to get space from his parents and…
President Michael Roth reviewed New York Times columnist Frank Bruni's new book, Where You Go Is Not Who You'll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania for The Washington Post. Though Bruni directs his thoughts specifically to the young men and women competing to gain admission to Ivy League and other highly competitive colleges and universities, Roth sees his message as speaking "more broadly to the culture of manufactured meritocracy--a culture of rankings and branding, of recruiting and rejection." "Bruni tackles the roots of this lesson with example after example of successful, accomplished and happy people whose college experiences were far from the elite halls of Stanford…
Writing in The Daily Beast, President Michael Roth reviewed In Defense of a Liberal Education by Fareed Zakaria, a refreshing change from the scores of books published in recent years decrying the state of higher education. Roth writes: Into this atmosphere of cynicism and spleen, Fareed Zakaria offers a compact, effective essay on the importance of a broad, contextual education. Cheerfully out of step with the strident critics of higher ed, In Defense of a Liberal Education is a reminder that American colleges and universities are a powerful resource that has allowed so many young people to learn about themselves and their ability to have a positive impact…
#THISISWHY Wesleyan President Michael Roth hosted a reception for Cardinal Achievement Award recipients March 31 in Zelnick Pavilion. Since the program began in 2012, more than 78 employees have received an award. “I’m so glad I had the opportunity to thank our staff members for their exemplary achievements," Roth said. "Their dedication to Wesleyan and their willingness to go well beyond what is expected of them make Wesleyan an extraordinary institution. They are why!” (more…)
President Michael Roth reviewed The End of College by Kevin Carey for The Atlantic. Though it might be tempting to dismiss the book as just another doomsday declaration about higher education, writes Roth, Carey's "call for more accessible student-centered universities is a powerful response to some of the real problems that beset these institutions today." Carey visits a handful of colleges and universities, including some--Harvard, Stanford, MIT--that admit fewer than 10 percent of applicants. "This dynamic of exclusivity is, Carey contends, about to change. Big time," writes Roth. Carey signs up for an online biology class from MIT, and proudly reports his test scores.…