A Harvard University history professor who taught at the Ivy League school for about four decades said he's leaving after becoming disillusioned by what he described as Harvard's academic direction, COVID-19 policies, and approach to admissions and campus culture.
James Hankins, a specialist in Renaissance history, announced his plans in an opinion essay published this week in Compact magazine.
He wrote that he delivered his final Harvard lecture two weeks earlier and is retiring as he finishes a four-year retirement agreement he said he signed in the fall of 2021.
In the essay, Hankins said his decision grew out of years of frustration with what he characterized as a shift in the history curriculum away from Western civilization and toward broader global history.
He argued that the change has left students less grounded in what he called the moral and intellectual inheritance of the West.
Hankins also criticized Harvard's pandemic response, including requirements that faculty teach while masked and periods of remote instruction.
He described the university's pandemic governance as incompatible with his view of liberal education and compared it to what he called a wider national tendency to defer uncritically to scientific authority.
The professor further tied his concerns to changes he said followed campus and national upheaval in 2020.
Hankins alleged that race and gender became decisive factors in graduate admissions decisions, describing instances in which he said highly qualified white male students were discouraged or rejected.
He wrote that he heard similar accounts from colleagues at other universities, but did not provide documentary evidence of nationwide practices.
The claims land amid ongoing debate over admissions and campus governance at elite universities.
In 2023, the Supreme Court curtailed the use of race in college admissions in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, a landmark ruling that forced selective universities to rework long-standing policies.
Hankins' essay also revisited the leadership turmoil that swept Harvard in late 2023 and early 2024.
He wrote that Harvard is on a "better course" under President Alan Garber, who first served as interim leader after President Claudine Gay resigned in January 2024 amid intense criticism of the university's handling of antisemitism concerns and broader scrutiny of her academic work. Garber was previously Harvard's provost.
Hankins said he is moving to the University of Florida's Hamilton School of Classical and Civic Education, which he praised for a renewed emphasis on the Western tradition and civic education.
The Hamilton School, launched in recent years as part of Florida's push to expand classical and civic instruction, has recruited faculty from across the country and drawn national attention in debates over higher education and curriculum.
In his conclusion, Hankins warned that abandoning Western civilization courses has weakened civic education and socialization, arguing that students cannot understand the meaning of civilization if they are not taught its history.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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