ABOUT US

The liberally educated person is one who is able to resist the easy and preferred answers, not because he is obstinate but because he knows others worthy of consideration.

— Allan Bloom

With the 20th Anniversary of Allan Bloom's The Closing Of The American Mind upon us, the absence of intellectual pluralism that Bloom decried is still depressingly upon us. There is an undeniable divide between the Academy and larger society; a curtain has been drawn around the academy, inside of which the protection of certain ideas has trumped intellectual exchange and a search for the truth. There should be no easy or protected answers in our schools. In the modern academy, many certainly do not know all of the ideas worthy of consideration. Minding the Campus hopes to change that, as a project devoted to a revival of intellectual pluralism and the best traditions of liberal education. We hope to foster a new climate of opinion that favors civil and honest engagement of all sides, offering an engaged debate for readers concerned with the state of the modern university. We intend to provide a simple central resource, providing day-to-day original content and drawing upon the best from established magazines and publications, as well as from less-visited corners, from professional journals to blogs and student publications. In connecting resources from disparate worlds, we hope to connect their readers, fostering potential for real discussion and change. A conversation about America’s Universities is needed; look for it here.

John Leo, Editor

John Leo is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor at the Institute's City Journal. His popular column, "On Society," ran in U.S.News & World Report for 17 years, and was syndicated to 140 newspapers through the Universal Press Syndicate.

Leo has worked as a senior writer for Time magazine, and as a staff reporter for the New York Times specializing in intellectual trends and the social sciences. Among other position he has held are assistant administrator of New York City's environmental protection administration, editor of a Catholic newspaper in Iowa, associate editor of Commonweal, book editor of the social science journal Trans-Action (now Society), and "Press Clips" columnist for the Village Voice. He is the author of three books, most recently "Incorrect Thoughts."

Anthony Paletta, Senior Editor

Anthony Paletta is an editor for the Center for the American University at the Manhattan Institute. He previously served as an editorial assistant at U.S. News and World Report.

Mr. Paletta earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University.

James Piereson, Contributing Editor

James Piereson is a Senior Fellow and Director of Manhattan Institute's Center for the American University and president of the William E. Simon Foundation. Mr. Piereson's research focuses on the importance of the classical liberal education and intellectual pluralism.

Before joining the Manhattan Institute, Mr. Piereson was executive director and trustee of the John M. Olin Foundation (1985-2005, when, following longstanding plans, the foundation closed its doors). In addition, he served on the Political Science faculties of several prominent universities, including Iowa State University (1974), Indiana University (1975), and the University of Pennsylvania (1976-82), where he taught courses in the field of United States government and political theory.

He is the author (with J. Sullivan and G. Marcus) of Political Tolerance and American Democracy (University of Chicago Press, 1982).

Mr. Piereson earned a B.A. degree (1968) and a Ph.D. degree (1973) in political science from Michigan State University.

Charlotte Allen, Contributing Editor

Charlotte Allen is a Searle Freedom Trust media fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor for Minding the Campus. Her articles have appeared in City Journal, the Atlantic, the Weekly Standard, National Review, the New Republic, Forbes, Barron's, In Character, Lingua Franca, the Washington Monthly, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Washington Times, the Washington Examiner, the Los Angeles Times, and the Stanford Law and Policy Review. She is also the author of The Human Christ: The Search for the Historical Jesus (1998).

John McWhorter, Contributing Editor

John H. McWhorter is a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor for Minding The Campus. McWhorter is the author of Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue, The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language, All About the Beat: Why Hip Hop Can't Save Black America, Losing the Race, and Winning the Race: Beyond the Crisis in Black America. He was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in Non-Fiction. McWhorter's work has appeared in leading publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The National Review, City Journal, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and New York Magazine.

John McWhorter earned his PhD in linguistics from Stanford University in 1993 and became Associate Professor of Linguistics at UC Berkeley after teaching at Cornell University.