BY REBECCA DOLHINOW AND DAVID SCHULTZ
Rebecca Dolhinow of California State University, Fullerton, and David Schultz of Hamline University seek chapter proposals for an edited book anthology tentatively entitled Trumpism and the Corporate University.
Trumpism and the Corporate University will be an edited volume that examines the rise of the corporate university over the last fifty years and the impact it has had on higher education in the United States. The impact of professionalization, managerialism, and depoliticization are unmistakable in higher education today. Yet we realize these processes play out in distinct ways in different types of universities and colleges, in different geographical regions, and in different student and faculty populations. To address the wide-ranging effects of capitalist corporate culture on higher education, the editors seek multiple approaches and viewpoints on topics such as: the impact the corporate university has had on academic freedom; free speech; shared governance; students, faculty, staff, and administration; finances; corporate sponsorship; diversity, equity, and inclusion; activism on campus; and other related topics. We are also interested in the impact the enrollment cliff and the Trump administration is and will have on higher education, as well as state efforts to regulate curriculum and other aspects of colleges and universities.
The editors invite submissions of chapter proposals for the book. We invite all methodologies, subfields, and approaches. We are interested in a variety of topics, including case studies and we encourage collectively created works or works written with students and staff. We hope to solicit enough proposals to put together a final book proposal to submit to publishers by early summer 2025.
If you are interested in contributing or have questions please contact Rebecca Dolhinow rdolhinow@fullerton.edu or David Schultz at dschultz@hamline.edu. If submitting a proposal, please send a proposed chapter title, a one- or two-paragraph chapter description, and a one-paragraph bio for each author. Final chapters will be approximately 25–30 pages, double-spaced, using APA citation style.
Feel free to pass this announcement along to anyone whom you think may be interested.
The collapse of American ideals is so far advanced now that academics calling wolf at this juncture is a case of far too little far too late. Today’s withered education climate is the fruit of half a century of neglect of American values as well as human values generally. All was subjected to the rule of Mammon and the puerile American Dream. As bad as the fate of education might be, there are much larger and more dangerous threats to civilization and they’re still being ignored by tertiary educationists. To rediscover its true mission, education needs to be de-institutionalized so that good teachers can survive and the bad ones forced to find less damaging career paths. I’m a staunch defender of education as the means to foster soul growth, but bureaucracy has destroyed that purpose in pursuit of its own selfish ends. And I see a lot of that in the defense of academe by academics. It won’t get the public support it expects. When the wheel falls off, broken, it’s a matter of putting a new and better one on. That’s where the effort needs to be directed, not in defending the indefensible as I see here.
I understand the frustration with the corporatization of higher ed, but dismissing academic critiques as “too little, too late” oversimplifies both the problem and potential solutions. The erosion of education isn’t just bureaucracy gone crazy—it’s the result of deliberate political and economic decisions that have prioritized profit over learning, often at the expense of historically marginalized communities.
Calls for ‘de-institutionalization’ ignore the reality that when institutions are abandoned, those most affected are the ones already fighting for access and equity. The rise of Trumpism in academia isn’t separate from these broader threats—it’s deeply intertwined with systemic racism, economic exploitation, and ideological attacks on critical thought. Addressing these issues requires more than rejecting institutions; it requires transforming them. The real work isn’t about defending the indefensible but ensuring education serves the people it has historically failed.