Michael S. Roth
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Michael S. Roth

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Michael S. Roth '78 became the 16th president of Wesleyan University in 2007, after having served as Hartley Burr Alexander Professor of Humanities at Scripps College, Associate Director of the Getty Research Institute, and President of the California College of the Arts. At Wesleyan, Roth has overseen the launch of academic programs such as the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life and the Shapiro Center for Creative Writing and Criticism, as well as five new interdisciplinary colleges emphasizing advanced research and cohort building in the areas of the environment, film, East Asian studies, integrative sciences, and design and engineering. Roth has undertaken a number of initiatives that have made a Wesleyan education more affordable for many and more accessible to students from under-represented groups. In the wake of the Supreme Court’s affirmative action decision in July 2023, he announced a suite of new recruiting efforts aimed at enhancing diverse campus learning including an end to admissions preference for legacy applicants and the creation of an African Scholars Program. Author and curator (most notably of the exhibition “Sigmund Freud: Conflict and Culture,” which opened at the Library of Congress in 1998), Roth has published and edited several books and essays centered on how people make sense of the past. Since returning to Wesleyan, he has published three books (all with Yale University Press) bearing on liberal education, the most recent being "The Student, A Short History" (2023). His "Beyond the University: Why Liberal Education Matters" (2014) has proved to be a powerful tool for students, their families, faculty and policymakers wrestling with the future of higher education in America. It was recognized in 2016 with the Assocation of American Colleges & Universities’ Frederic W. Ness award for a book that best illuminates the goals and practices of a contemporary liberal education. Roth’s 2019 book, "Safe Enough Spaces: A Pragmatist’s Approach to Inclusion, Free Speech, and Political Correctness," addresses some of the most contentious issues in American higher education, including affirmative action, safe spaces, and questions of free speech. Roth regularly publishes essays, book reviews, and commentaries in the national media and scholarly journals. He continues to teach undergraduate courses at Wesleyan and through Coursera and the National Educational Equity Foundation has offered online and hybrid courses.
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