Talk: "What Criticism Teaches: The University Conditions of Non-Economic Life" by Christopher Newfield (Mellon Sawyer Seminar Series)

• Event Date: Tuesday, April 21, 2026
• Time: 5:00 pm–6:30 pm (CDT)
• Location: Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana, IL

• Talk

For this presentation within the At Risk U event series, Professor Christopher Newfield (Director of Research, Independent Social Research Foundation, London) will present research on the negative effects of the economic models guiding most 21st century universities. With public disappointment with universities long rising, and the Trump Administration now undermining every possible revenue source from federal research funding and student loan programs to international student tuition and endowment income, Newfield will argue that public universities must confront and replace an entrenched financial model that disserves education while undermining their own fiscal solvency. This presentation will discuss the incorrect belief that "learning equals earning" in conjunction with epic institutional dependence on debt, asset price inflation, and risk management, charting a pathway out of the current impasse that derives from findings in humanities scholarship about how everyday life benefits from the suspension of economic incentives.

The At Risk U event series is part of a larger faculty project examining the emergence of risk management as a deeply ingrained organizing feature and priority of modern US universities, and considers its implications for academic freedom and democratic governance. For more information see At Risk U: the Past, Present & Future of Academic Freedom (external link).