Hannah Leffingwell, Author at Public Seminar

Higher Ed

Why Do Students Cheat?

ChatGPT and the myth of meritocracy

February 22, 2023 • by Hannah Leffingwell

ChatGPT is just one symptom of a more severe disease in higher education, namely, the multiple forms of meritocratic thinking......

Sex & Gender

It’s Time for Democrats to Claim the Moral High Ground

We need creative, large-scale, intersectional solutions that put out many small fires all at once and fundamentally change the way our system works

June 28, 2022 • by Hannah Leffingwell

In my class on the history of sexuality and gender, I’m trying to teach my students that every one of these labels is an argument with a past....

It’s Time for Democrats to Claim the Moral High Ground

Higher Ed

The Problem Is Not Harvard, the Problem Is Graduate School

Sexual harassment is a normal feature of the current power arrangement. What will you do about it?

February 15, 2022 • by Hannah Leffingwell

This is because the system is built to protect, enable, and encourage harassers. Graduate students, whose cheap labor is used by the university to buttress the outrageous salaries of star faculty and senior administrators, are often broke, disempowered, terrified, and exhausted, even prior to being sexually harassed....

The Problem Is Not Harvard, the Problem Is Graduate School

Politics

Did Judith Butler Really Say TERFs Are Fascists?

No—Butler did something far more useful. They asked us to think more deeply about body politics

October 19, 2021 • by Hannah Leffingwell

The latest Judith Butler story goes like this: Butler, a renowned philosopher and queer theory bigwig, did an interview with Jules Gleeson of The Guardian. The interview was published on September 7, 2021: social media instantly exploded over Butler's assertion that so-called “trans-exclusionary radical feminists” (otherwise known by their opponents ...

Did Judith Butler Really Say TERFs Are Fascists?

The Right

Why a Far-Right Activist Slapped President Macron

France’s culture wars are being fanned by a racism that cannot be discussed in public—but that followers of Marine Le Pen understand all the same

June 30, 2021 • by Hannah Leffingwell

_____ French President Emmanuel Macron was greeted at a recent press event with a slap in the face. Damien T., the man who delivered the slap, was heard yelling “Montjoie! Saint-Denis!” and “A bas la macronie” the former being a Royalist battle cry, the latter translating as “Down with Macronism!” The reason ...

Why a Far-Right Activist Slapped President Macron

Feminism

More Misandry, Please!

France Needs More Man-Haters—but Pauline Harmange doesn’t seem to be one of them

April 28, 2021 • by Hannah Leffingwell

_____ The cover of French feminist Pauline Harmange’s recent book I Hate Men (Fourth Estate, 2021, translated by Natasha Lehrer) prepares the reader for a salacious world of feminist intrigue, and a no-holds barred misandrist rant for the ages. Arranged in bold block letters over a neon yellow background, the title ...

Europe & Central Asia

France’s Tale of Two Secularisms

After terrorist attacks rattle France, where will the Republic go from here?

November 18, 2020 • by Hannah Leffingwell

In October, France experienced another spate of terrorist attacks over a span of two weeks. First was the gruesome beheading of an Évreux public-school teacher, Samuel Paty, after he showed a caricature of the prophet Muhammad in his class. The slaying received national attention and the French government responded swiftly, ...

Higher Ed

Brave New Classroom

Lessons from the first six weeks

May 13, 2020 • by Hannah Leffingwell

What felt at the time like the worst-case scenario has now become our “new normal.” Emails warn of budget catastrophes, lost tuition, low enrollment. Amid fears that this crisis portends the end of higher education as we know it, I've started to wonder whether that is necessarily a bad thing. ...

Politics

How The New York Times Turned Me into a Bernie Supporter

When the liberal media cries wolf, it energizes the grassroots

February 7, 2020 • by Hannah Leffingwell

Among my reasons for resisting his renewed candidacy: the bad taste left in my mouth from the Bernie Bros phenomenon, his age, and honestly? His gender. As the 2020 democratic field came into focus, my choice to support Elizabeth Warren felt easy. Warren boasted an impressive record, but one that wouldn’t allow ...

How The New York Times Turned Me into a Bernie Supporter

North America

The Moral Clarity of Children

What Climate Strikers Have to Teach Elizabeth Warren

October 9, 2019 • by Hannah Leffingwell

The quick answer was: yes, Warren’s speech did feel monumental. And yes, the Climate Strike was an event of global significance. The two rallies inspire the assembled crowds, and me. Most importantly, their positioning as bookends to the week’s political news brought into focus how these two agendas might intersect. Warren highlighted the innovations and ...

Uncategorized

“After Stonewall” Exhibitions Remind Us That Queer History Shouldn’t Be Straightforward

Stonewall on show at the NYPL, the New York Historical Society, and the Leslie-Lohman Museum

June 29, 2019 • by Hannah Leffingwell

For visitors to these commemorative exhibitions, the broad similarities largely stop there. While all three institutions have chosen the Stonewall riots as the epicenter of their curatorial narratives, their reasons for doing so differ. At the New York Public Library, the riots serve to anchor a larger narrative arc of ...

Uncategorized

An Open Letter to My Best Friend About Abortion

I am not writing you this letter to change your mind.

June 19, 2019 • by Hannah Leffingwell

I don’t remember when I first realized I was “pro-choice” and you were “pro-life.” It’s not a discussion we ever had. We grew up in the same Colorado suburb, only a few blocks away from each other. In kindergarten, we started playing together. I like to think we became friends for ...

Hannah Leffingwell

Why Do Students Cheat?

ChatGPT and the myth of meritocracy

It’s Time for Democrats to Claim the Moral High Ground

We need creative, large-scale, intersectional solutions that put out many small fires all at once and fundamentally change the way our system works

The Problem Is Not Harvard, the Problem Is Graduate School

Sexual harassment is a normal feature of the current power arrangement. What will you do about it?

Did Judith Butler Really Say TERFs Are Fascists?

No—Butler did something far more useful. They asked us to think more deeply about body politics

Why a Far-Right Activist Slapped President Macron

France’s culture wars are being fanned by a racism that cannot be discussed in public—but that followers of Marine Le Pen understand all the same

More Misandry, Please!

France Needs More Man-Haters—but Pauline Harmange doesn’t seem to be one of them

France’s Tale of Two Secularisms

After terrorist attacks rattle France, where will the Republic go from here?

Brave New Classroom

Lessons from the first six weeks

How The New York Times Turned Me into a Bernie Supporter

When the liberal media cries wolf, it energizes the grassroots

The Moral Clarity of Children

What Climate Strikers Have to Teach Elizabeth Warren

“After Stonewall” Exhibitions Remind Us That Queer History Shouldn’t Be Straightforward

Stonewall on show at the NYPL, the New York Historical Society, and the Leslie-Lohman Museum

An Open Letter to My Best Friend About Abortion

I am not writing you this letter to change your mind.

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