Below are links to some recent bylines by Wesleyan University President Michael S. Roth.
March 25, 2024 - Inside Higher Ed
Cease-Fire Now
Silence at a time of humanitarian catastrophe isn’t neutrality; it’s either cowardice or collaboration. We don’t need institution-speak, but we do need leaders of academic and cultural institutions to call on our government and our fellow citizens to address this crisis. [ Read More ]
January 24, 2024 - Wall Street Journal
‘The Counterfeit Countess’ Review: Fake Title, Real Courage
The remarkable story of Janina Mehlberg almost didn’t see the light of day. A Holocaust survivor and a mathematics professor in Chicago, Mehlberg stood out for making her way in an academic field dominated by men. But while teaching her students and giving conference papers, she was privately writing an account of her life’s most remarkable episode: her daring impersonation of a Polish aristocrat in World War II, a deception that allowed her to aid Poles who had been imprisoned by the Nazis. She kept it all secret, but her husband, a survivor and distinguished philosopher of science in his own right, preserved and translated the memoir after her death in 1969 [ Read More ]
December 12, 2023 - Salon
Higher education must help protect democracy
We must affirm the core principles of civic education and take specific actions to defend democracy while it is still possible to do so. When the Kalven Report counseled schools to stay neutral in 1967 (rather than support civil rights or criticize the Vietnam War), even its cautious authors made an exception for moments when “the society, or segments of it, threaten the very mission of the university and its values of free inquiry.” This is such a moment. Whatever party or candidates one supports, colleges and universities must defend democracy to defend their very mission, to defend their values of free inquiry and teaching. At this time that means calling out the dangers of tyranny while inspiring democratic practices among young people (through efforts like D2024) so that we can defend our country from the incendiary forces now gathering around Donald Trump. [ Read More ]
December 11, 2023 - Los Angeles Times
Opinion: College presidents are supposed to be moral leaders, not evasive bureaucrats
College presidents are not just neutral bureaucrats or referees among competing protesters, faculty and donors. We must not hide behind the language of lawyers. We must speak up on the issues of the day when they are relevant to the core mission of our institutions. Leaders of colleges and universities must not allow ourselves to be put on the defensive by politicians who are mostly interested in scoring points. We must defend academic freedom and intellectual diversity to ensure that demagogues don’t get to decide what we read or how we teach. [ Read More ]
November 24, 2023 - Wall Street Journal
‘Vienna’ Review: Where the World Went Modern
From early fascism in the first decades of the 20th century to scientifically based socialist experiments after World War I, Vienna was home to every sort of innovation, from logical positivism and psychoanalysis to modernist architecture and mathematics. Mr. Cockett presents as many as he can. We never learn about individual thinkers in depth, but we do develop an appreciation for the city’s varied and powerful legacy. [ Read More ]
November 13, 2023 - Slate
My Students Wanted to Talk Israel-Palestine. Here’s What We Did Instead.
By thinking together with openness about our civilization and the violence it seems to engender, we hope to find our own ways of coming to terms with it, of not being blindsided by it, and, perhaps, through study, conversation, and learning from others, of reducing its most poisonous effects. [ Read More ]
Read older bylines here.
