August 26, 2008                                 contact:

                                                            Sherman Dorn

Dept. of Psychological and Social Foundations

                                                            UFF/USF Chapter President

                                                            uff@ourusf.org

For immediate release

United Faculty of Florida invites

Michael Bérubé

to Speak at USF

 

TAMPA, Fla. --- Michael Bérubé, commentator and Paterno Family Professor in English Literature and Science, Technology and Society at Pennsylvania State University, will speak at the University of South Florida, Tampa Campus, on Tuesday, Sept. 23, at 5:15 pm in CHE 100.  His lecture on What’s Liberal About the Liberal Arts? is free and open to the public, and is sponsored by the United Faculty of Florida.

     Bérubé is the author of six books, including the award winning Life As We Know It: A Father, A Family, and an Exceptional Child, and the more controversial What's

Liberal About the Liberal Arts? Classroom Politics and “Bias” in Higher Education.  He is a leading figure in the academic “culture wars,” and the right-wing author David

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UFF Invites Bérubé to USF                                                                                               2

 

Horowitz listed Bérubé as one of the 101 most dangerous professors in America.

     “Faculty and students are under pressure from outside academia to conform to certain political trends,” said USF/UFF Chapter President Sherman Dorn.  “That is why we are extremely pleased and proud to have Professor Bérubé come to USF to speak to faculty, students, administrators, and members of the university community about academic freedom.”

     Bérubé is a leading critic of current proposals to restrict academic freedom for the sake of eliminating “academic bias.”  While all institutions are subject to such political pressures, the most public targets of this movement are leading institutions such as the members of the American Association of Universities (AAU), which USF aspires to join.  Bérubé’s own Pennsylvania State University joined in 1958.

     Bérubé also chair of the NCTE Public Language Awards Committee, which selects the recipients of the annual Orwell and Doublespeak awards.  He is also a member of the National Council of the American Association of University Professors.  He teaches literature and cultural studies, and in addition to his six books he has published over a hundred and fifty articles for periodicals ranging from the Yale Journal of Criticism to The New Yorker to The Washington Post.  For more information, visit Bérubé’s website at http://www.michaelberube.com/.  For USF parking information, consult http://usfweb2.usf.edu/parking_services/visitors.asp.

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