Author: Steven Doloff
Steven Doloff is a professor in the Department of Humanities and Media Studies at Pratt Institute. His essays on culture and education have appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.
American Reformations
In the popularity of fundamentalism, we may be witnessing the same reaction to science that befell traditional, entrenched religion throughout American history.
Apocalypse Nation
In his 1871 essay titled “Democratic Vistas,” Walt Whitman warned a post–Civil War America that it was still being morally tested. He predicted that unless the nation matched its tremendous materialistic progress with a comparable spiritual advancement, it was bound for a fate “equivalent … to that of the fabled damned.” Here we are 141 …
Unreasonable Optimism
In a college English class that I was teaching, filled mostly with African American and Hispanic students, a reading assignment prompted a discussion of ethnic minorities’ economic disadvantages in the United States. Assuming we were all on the same page, as a “liberal” I couldn’t resist weighing in and expressing my own professorial indignation on …