Name Neil Gross | Role Professor | |
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Books Why Are Professors Liberal and Why Do Conservatives Care?, Richard Rorty Similar People Charles Camic, Michele Lamont, Emile Durkheim | ||
Neil gross why are professors liberal
Neil Louis Gross (born June 1, 1971) is the Charles A. Dana Professor of Sociology and chair of the department of sociology at Colby College. He is also a visiting scholar of New York University’s Institute for Public Knowledge. He has written several books on sociological and political topics, and also blogs for The Chronicle of Higher Education. Gross edited the American Sociological Association's journal Sociological Theory from 2009 to 2015. He previously taught at the University of Southern California, Harvard University, and at the University of British Columbia.
Contents
- Neil gross why are professors liberal
- Early life
- Education
- Career
- On liberalism in academia
- Books
- References
Early life
Gross grew up near Berkeley, California, raised by his stay-at-home mother and his father, a legal editor. Both of his parents were avid readers.
Education
Gross earned a B.A. in Legal Studies from the University of California, Berkeley in 1992, and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2002.
Career
Before going to graduate school, Gross was a patrolman in the Berkeley Police Department in Berkeley, California. From 2004 to 2008, he was an assistant professor of sociology at Harvard University, after which he joined the faculty of the University of British Columbia. He was the editor-in-chief of Sociological Theory for six years (2009-2015). In 2015, he left the University of British Columbia to become Charles A. Dana professor and chair of sociology.
On liberalism in academia
Self selection is Gross’s main explanation for the liberal tendency of academia. Smart young liberals are more likely to stay in academia after they receive their degree. Young conservatives may chose not to stay in academia based upon its reputation for being liberal. The more conservatives are critical of educational institutions for being liberal, the less likely conservative graduates are to stay and join the professoriate.
Gross says that his research shows that professors tend to be liberal but most are not far left or radical. The most left leaning tend to be in the social sciences and humanities followed by natural sciences. Less so are those in economics, applied sciences such as engineering and computer science, with those in business tending to be more conservative. While the liberal bent of academia has been a fairy stable phenomenon since the 1930s, it does shift over time depending on the current political climate and who is attending college.
“There’s increasing evidence that yes, people who have college degrees do tend to be more liberal than people who don't have college degrees but when you actually unpack what’s going on, it turns out that the reason that they’re more liberal is because folks with more liberal views are more likely to go to college and finish four year degrees and evidence of a really strong effect of being in higher education on people’s political views is beginning to look questionable.…but certainly the idea that college indoctrinates students and gives them strong left leaning views, I think the evidence for that is pretty weak.”