Passing on the Right: Conservative Professors in the Progressive University

Few seem to think conservatives should become professors. While the left fears an invasion of their citadel by conservatives marching to orders from the Koch brothers, the right steers young conservatives away from a professorial vocation by lampooning its leftism. Shields and Dunn quiet these fears by shedding light on the hidden world of conservative professors through 153 interviews. Most conservative professors told them that the university is a far more tolerant place than its right-wing critics imagine. Many, in fact, first turned right in the university itself, while others say they feel more at home in academia than in the Republican Party. Even so, being a conservative in the progressive university can be challenging. Many professors admit to closeting themselves prior to tenure by passing as liberals. Some openly conservative professors even say they were badly mistreated on account of their politics, especially those who ventured into politicized disciplines or expressed culturally conservative views. Despite real challenges, the many successful professors interviewed by Shields and Dunn show that conservatives can survive and sometimes thrive in one of America's most progressive professions. And this means that liberals and conservatives need to rethink the place of conservatives in academia. Liberals should take the high road by becoming more principled advocates of diversity, especially since conservative professors are rarely close-minded or combatants in a right-wing war against the university. Movement conservatives, meanwhile, should de-escalate its polemical war against the university, especially since it inadvertently helps cement progressives' troubled rule over academia.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Part I: The Politics of Conservative Professors Chapter 1: The Conservative Minority Chapter 2: The Republican Party and its Discontents Part II: Life In the Progressive University Chapter 3: The Bias Debate Chapter 4: Closeted Conservatives Chapter 5: Open Conservatism and its Challenges Chapter 6: The Limits of Liberalism Part III: Should We Care? Chapter 7: The Consequences of a Progressive Professoriate Epilogue: Affirmative Action for Conservatives?

About the Author :
Jon A. Shields is Associate Professor in the Department of Government at Claremont McKenna College. Joshua M. Dunn Sr. is Associate Professor of Political Science and Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Government and the Individual at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs.

Review :
"Jon Shields and Josh Dunn have produced our first reliable study of academic conservatives, who have found a more comfortable home at the university than many of us imagined. But they remain a slender minority, especially in the humanities and social sciences, which makes the academy a less educational place for all of us. I hope that this careful and eloquent book reminds my fellow liberals about the vital role that conservative professors can play in academic life, if we can open our minds to them." --Jonathan Zimmerman, Professor of Education and History, New York University "Technological revolutions, acute financial pressures, and deep cultural shifts undermining the traditional humanistic curriculum are forcing a profound rethinking and restructuring of American higher education today, about which the professoriate at its epicenter sometimes seems the least perceptive and prepared. In the midst of this protracted upheaval, Passing on the Right raises the difficult question of political ideology and its implications for academia's mission. It will only help higher education and the society that sustains it if this book is widely read and debated." --Christian Smith, Wm. R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology, University of Notre Dame "Why have most of the humanities and social sciences become political monocultures? Shields and Dunn have written the authoritative treatise, integrating all previous work in an accessible and fair-minded way, and adding in empathy - the rarely heard voices of conservative professors. All academics should read this book, as should anyone who wants to improve the scholarship, prestige, and public funding of the academy." --Jonathan Haidt, author of The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion "Passing on the Right, although written by two self-described academic conservatives, rejects some common conservative critiques of academia-for example, that it is not hospitable to conservative professors, and that liberal professors are engaging in widespread ideological indoctrination of their students. On the other hand, the book marshals evidence and arguments that increasing the now very small numbers of conservative faculty members in the humanities and social sciences would enrich teaching and scholarship for everyone in the university community, and also benefit society at large. It challenges the champions of diversity to appreciate the important contributions that conservative faculty members-academia's least celebrated minority-can make to a truly liberal education." --Nadine Strossen, Former President of the American Civil Liberties Union "Robust and uninhibited intellectual inquiry should be at the center of the American Academy. As a revolutionary Christian I welcome more intense dialogue with my conservative brothers and sisters. This brave book helps us move toward this Socratic condition!" --Cornel West "I found this book subtle and thought-provoking throughout." --Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution "Passing on the Right actually manages to be one of the most optimistic books on American higher education by conservative authors in recent memory." --The American Interest "The interviews and supplementary survey on which the book is based yielded findings that are not only interesting, but vital to understanding the environments in which college students learn - and in which their own political identities are shaped."-- Inside Higher Ed "[Shields and Dunn] have produced a clear-eyed and rational discussion of modern academia that steers clear of polemics and challenges the dogmas of both the left and the right. . . . [They] make a strong case for the importance of conservative voices in modern academia and for why conservatives should not abandon the field of higher education to the progressive left." --The Weekly Standard "Passing on the Right does, in fact, venture into great detail to paint this portrait, sharing numerous interviews with anonymous conservative professors and providing research regarding the plight of the right-wing academic...This combination of empirical and anecdotal data provides an inside look on what it's really like to be a conservative professor--does holding such an identity mean facing discrimination and losing friends or does it mean being highly successful? Shields and Dunn contend that the answer is both." --Amber Athey, Campus Reform