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Unassailable Ideas: How Unwritten Rules and Social Media Shape Discourse in American Higher Education 1st Edition

by Ilana Redstone (Author), John Villasenor (Author)
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 11 ratings
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Open inquiry and engagement with a diverse range of views are long-cherished and central tenets of higher education and are pivotal to innovation and knowledge creation. Yet, free inquiry on American campuses is hampered by a climate that constrains teaching, research, and overall discourse.

In Unassailable Ideas, Ilana Redstone and John Villasenor examine the dominant belief system on American campuses, its uncompromising enforcement through social media, and the consequences for higher education. They argue that two trends in particular--the emergent role of social media in limiting academic research and knowledge discovery and a campus culture increasingly intolerant to diverse views and open inquiry--are fundamentally reshaping higher education. Redstone and Villasenor further identify and explain how three well-intentioned unwritten rules regarding identity define the current campus climate. They present myriad case studies illustrating the resulting impact on education, knowledge creation-and, increasingly the world beyond campus. They also provide a set of recommendations to build a new campus climate that would be more tolerant toward diverse perspectives and open inquiry.

An insightful analysis of the current state of academia, Unassailable Ideas highlights an environment in higher education that forecloses entire lines of research, entire discussions, and entire ways of conducting classroom teaching.
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  1. ISBN-10
    0190078065
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0190078065
  3. Edition
    1st
  4. Publisher
    Oxford University Press
  5. Publication date
    September 22, 2020
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    9.3 x 0.9 x 6.1 inches
  8. Print length
    208 pages
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"In Unassailable Ideas, Redstone and Villasenor identify several assumptions that have come to act as dogmas in academia, and they show what happens when faculty and others run afoul of the new dogmas. Outrage and censorship cause problems not just for the faculty involved, but also for those watching, who must be careful to avoid running afoul of the dogmas themselves, and for everyone who has a stake in health of universities and the quality of the scholarship they produce. For anyone trying to get a better understanding of what's been happening at American colleges and universities and wondering how serious the threats to free speech and academic freedom actually are, this book is a must-read." --Bradley Campbell, Professor of Sociology, California State University, Los Angeles "Redstone and Villasenor use an interesting and important lens to view timely, challenging issues facing American higher education. Their synthesis of how social media and certain sets of beliefs can stifle discourse is worthy of serious consideration." --Michelle Deutchman, Executive Director, University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement "Anyone under the impression that all that happened on college campuses in the mid-2010s was a few student protests getting a little out of hand should read this brisk, penetrating book. The issue is a nearly medieval ideology that has taken hold of academic culture over the past 25 years, and we ignore it at the peril of young American minds." --John H. McWhorter, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University "Is free speech under threat on our campuses? As this smart little book reminds us, that's the wrong question. The real danger to higher education isn't a cabal of jack-booted censors, but the much subtler forces that discourage us from critiquing our dominant assumptions about multiculturalism, discrimination, and identity. A truly liberal campus would engage in a full-throated argument about these principles, instead of trying to place them beyond debate. Let's hope that this book sparks precisely the dialogue that our colleges and universities have suppressed." --Jonathan Zimmerman, Professor of Education and History, University of Pennsylvania

About the Author

Ilana Redstone is a professor of sociology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She holds a joint PhD in sociology and demography from the University of Pennsylvania. Ilana is also the founder of Diverse Perspectives Consulting. She leads workshops and consults inside and outside of academia, helping organizations build a climate where open communication and innovation thrive. More information about her work is available at diverseperspectivesconsulting.com.

John Villasenor is a professor of electrical engineering, law, public policy, and management at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is also the director of the UCLA Institute for Technology, Law, and Policy; a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution; a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; 1st edition (September 22, 2020)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0190078065
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0190078065
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.3 x 0.9 x 6.1 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 11 ratings

About the author

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Ilana Redstone

Ilana Redstone

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Ilana Redstone is a professor of sociology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She holds a joint PhD in Sociology and Demography from the University of Pennsylvania.

Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
11 global ratings
Brilliant Narrative
5 Stars
Brilliant Narrative
As a marketer and UCLA alumna, I was drawn to the research conducted at UC campuses that informs much of the book's narrative.I found its chapters to be very well organized, easy to reference, and a joy to read.I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding the limitations of modern discourse online and within academic settings.
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Top reviews from the United States

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Narrative
Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2020
Verified Purchase
As a marketer and UCLA alumna, I was drawn to the research conducted at UC campuses that informs much of the book's narrative.

I found its chapters to be very well organized, easy to reference, and a joy to read.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding the limitations of modern discourse online and within academic settings.
Customer image
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Narrative
Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2020
As a marketer and UCLA alumna, I was drawn to the research conducted at UC campuses that informs much of the book's narrative.

I found its chapters to be very well organized, easy to reference, and a joy to read.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding the limitations of modern discourse online and within academic settings.
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5 people found this helpful
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Timothy Doran
5.0 out of 5 stars A brave and iconoclastic critique of modern US orthodoxies.
Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2024
This excellent, civil, and well-argued book politely questions a series of closely-related US campus orthodoxies that gave taken root about identity.
It is not written in a cranky tone like, for example, Gad Saad's book "The Parasitic Mind." Rather, it asks, in a well-organized and thoughtful way, why a series of views has become dogmatic on topics related to diversity and the measures that have been taken to ensure, protect, or increase it.
It first addresses three prevalent elements of the orthodoxy that it aims to question. These are the following beliefs:
A.) All subversions of tradition are helpful
B.) All differences in group outcomes are due to discrimination
C.) An individual's group identity (ethnic, sexual, gender, and so on) is paramount and trumps all other forms of identity or expression.

The second item above (B) is particularly significant, as that idea has hardened into an unassailable orthodoxy whose critics are all too easily (in today's campus environments) branded as bigots.

The authors give sociological explanations related to campus culture and rational self-interest of professors to explain the cultural forms that have accreted around and demanded adherence to these stances. They ask whether an intellectual climate that, through several channels, suppresses all challenges to these three "truths" is healthy.

A useful chapter challenging the notion, still on the fringes today but (unless challenges to it are permitted and attended to) that math and science are somehow "racist" is included. And sections on the hypertrophy of the conceptualizations of "microaggression" and even "harm" constitute essential reading.

I would recommend this as a fine contribution to the debate, and I would recommend it both to persons who think they will agree with it and to those who think they probably will not.

This work is intelligent and well-reasoned enough to make it very difficult for reasonable persons to simply dismiss or disregard anyone with any critique of DEI programs.
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