Summer Bonus EP: Ivy League elitism versus Black Power (w/ Stefan Bradley)

Universities and colleges are often caricatured as hotbeds of radicalism. In reality, they’re institutionally conservative and elitist — especially Ivy League schools. What happens when folks push back against that? What happens when Black scholars, activists, and others demand better? On this summer bonus episode of Darts and Letters, we speak with Stefan Bradley, Professor of African American Studies and Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts Coordinator for Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives at Loyola Marymount University, about his book Upending the Ivory Tower: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Ivy League. He takes us through the racialized history of higher education — a history that persists into and shapes the present.

Universities and colleges are often caricatured as hotbeds of radicalism. In reality, they’re institutionally conservative and elitist — especially Ivy League schools. What happens when folks push back against that? What happens when Black scholars, activists, and others demand better? On this summer bonus episode of Darts and Letters, we speak with Stefan Bradley, Professor of African American Studies and Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts Coordinator for Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives at Loyola Marymount University, about his book Upending the Ivory Tower: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Ivy League. He takes us through the racialized history of higher education — a history that persists into and shapes the present.

——————-FURTHER READING AND LISTENING——————

Visit Stefan Bradley’s faculty page and check out his work, especially his books Upending the Ivory Tower, Harlem vs. Columbia University, and Alpha Phi Alpha: A Legacy of Greatness, the Demands of Transcendence.
Read this Gonzaga interview with Bradley “On Race and Writing.”

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—————————-CREDITS—————————-

This week, Darts and Letters was hosted and edited by Gordon Katic. Jay Cockburn co-hosted and was our lead producer. Our producer was Ren Bangert. Our managing producer is Marc Apollonio. The lead research assistant on this episode was Franklynn Bartoll.

Our theme song and music was created by Mike Barber, our graphic design was created by Dakota Koop, and our marketing was done by Ian Sowden.

This episode received support by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research, which provided us a research grant to look at the concept of “public intellectualism.” Professor Allen Sens at the University of British Columbia is the lead academic advisor. This is also part of a wider project looking at neoliberal educational reforms, led by Professor Marc Spooner at the University of Regina. Professor Spooner provided research support for this episode.

Darts and Letters is produced in Toronto, which is on the traditional land of Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat Peoples. It is also produced in Vancouver, BC, which is on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.