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Book Précis: After they closed the gates: Jewish illegal immigration to the United States, 1921-1965

Garland argues that American immigration quota laws stimulated illegal immigration from Europe. She makes two claims that guide the narrative of the text. First, she asserts that the history of illegal immigration cannot be interpreted by reviewing the letter of the law and enforcement alone. It requires telling stories about what the law meant to people through their experiences. Second, Garland claims that Jews, unlike Mexicans and Asians were able to decouple and shed their ethnic identity from illegal immigration.

Fee-Free, Stigma-Free, and Open Education



This is the third posting treating Cory’s habits and arts of an educated person, which are a shared responsibility of teachers and students. They are the foundation for a liberal education and necessary for the exercise of public intellectualism. There are things we ought to be thinking about and doing to ensure that Cory’s habits and arts are meaningful parts of university life.


In 1861 William Johnson Cory presented an essay titled Eton Reform in which he defends the curriculum of Eton College. Cory had prepared a defense of the Etonian system (curriculum) in reply to the criticisms of Matthew James Higgins and Sir J.T. Coleridge. At the time the headmaster was addressing allegations that Eton College was teaching its students nothing useful that may lead to a job.

If Managerialism is the Condition, is Open and Agile Practice the Cure?

In a 2014 article published in Liberal Education Stephen Rowe provides a framework to help interpret the reasons for the rise of Managerialism in the contemporary university, the negative impacts of Managerialism, and some approaches that might rectify or at least mitigate the negative impact of Managerialism on the university. While striving for similar outcomes, I propose open and agile practice as an alternative to the reductionist and hierarchical assumptions of traditional strategic planning.

Liberalizing the Corporate University

This posting is an edited text of the Residential Colleges Professorial Lecture delivered at the University of Southern Queensland on August 6, 2014. The lecture was intended to introduce the students to the nature of the corporatized university and the impact that commercialization has had on traditional university values including the rights and responsibilities conferred through academic freedom.