Wesleyan University President Michael S. Roth will be in conversation with Roxanne Coady, founder of RJ Julia Booksellers, about his new release, Safe Enough Spaces, a compassionate and provocative manifesto on the crises confronting higher education.
In this bracing book, President Roth stakes out a pragmatist path through the thicket of issues facing colleges today to carry out the mission of higher education. With great empathy, candor, subtlety, and insight, Roth offers a sane approach to the noisy debates surrounding affirmative action, political correctness, and free speech, urging us to envision college as a space in which students are empowered to engage with criticism and with a variety of ideas.
Countering the increasing cynical dismissal—from both liberals and conservatives—of the traditional core values of higher education, Safe Enough Spaces: A Pragmatist’s Approach to Inclusion, Free Speech, and Political Correctness on College Campuses champions the merits of different diversities, including intellectual diversity, with a timely call for universities to embrace boldness, rigor, and practical idealism.
Michael S. Roth is president of Wesleyan University and a historian, curator, and teacher. His previous books include Beyond the University: Why Liberal Education Matters.
A reception and book signing, provided by Wesleyan University, will immediately follow presentation.