On the student life apparatus.

References and suggested readings:

• Chad Wellmon. 2026. After the University: Higher Education and the Future of Intellectual Work. Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Paul Reitter and Chad Wellmon. 2023. Permanent Crisis: The Humanities in a Disenchanted Age. University of Chicago Press.
• Chad Wellmon. 2016. Organizing Enlightenment: Information Overload and the Invention of the Modern Research University. Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Bavarian L. Baldwin. 2021. In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities Are Plundering Our Cities. Bold Type Books.
• David S. Busch. 2025. Disciplining Democracy: How the Modern American University Transformed Student Activism. Cornell University Press.
• Matteo Pasquinelli. 2023. The Eye of the Master: A Social History of Artificial Intelligence. Verso.
• Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Phenomenology of Perception.
• Sean Keilen. 2026. Shakespeare's Scholars: Three Lessons from the Liberal Arts. Princeton University Press.
• Chadwellmon.com

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On age, class, and jobs.

References and suggested readings:

• Samuel Moyn. 2026. Gerontocracy in America: How the Old Are Hoarding Power and Wealth—and What to Do About It. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
• Samuel Moyn. April 23, 2026. Professors Are Too Old: The Academy’s Gerontocracy Problem is Worse than Anyone Admits. The Chronicle of Higher Education.
• Dino Buzzati, translated by Lawrence Venuti. 2023. The Stronghold. NYRB Classics.
• Nazmul Sultan. 2024. Waiting for the People: The Idea of Democracy in Indian Anticolonial Thought. Harvard University Press.
• Samuel Moyn’s faculty page
• Follow Sam on X, The Everything App, @samuelmoyn

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Speaking to the dead, academically.

References and suggested readings:

• Jesse Bering. 2026. The Incredible Afterlives of Dr. Stevenson: One Scientist's Epic Quest for Evidence of Reincarnation, Apparitions, Poltergeists, and Other Matters of the Soul. University of Chicago Press.
• Jesse Bering’s website
• Bering in Mind Substack

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