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Simon Bronner, PhD
Simon J. Bronner is an award-winning author, professor, dean, and consultant on higher education reform, American culture and politics, and Holocaust and antisemitism studies. He has held distinguished professor posts at Harvard University, University of Wisconsin, Penn State University, Leiden University (Netherlands), Osaka University (Japan), University of California-Davis, and Missouri University of Science and Technology. He holds degrees in political science, American Studies, and folklore.
He is the author and editor of over 40 books on culture, education, and politics, including award-winning titles of Americanness, Youth Cultures in America, Campus Traditions, and Consuming Visions. He is the founding editor of the Material Worlds (University Press of Kentucky), Folklore and Ethnology (Lexington), and Jewish Cultural Studies (Littman) book series. His book Jewish Cultural Studies won the National Jewish Book Award in the…
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The Crisis of Higher Education
Once touted as a paragon of higher education in the world, America’s universities in the twenty-first century have taken flak from both the Left and Right, not just for the politicization of its instruction, but also for its broader functions to maintain a democratic society and culture. With legislative support dwindling, enrollments declining, public confidence waning, political protests on the rise, and student success questioned, many organizations declared a crisis in higher education that was exacerbated by defunding of grants by the second Trump administration. In 2025, it was reported that colleges were closing at a rate of approximately one per week, primarily because of financial pressure, and the reputation of an education in the United States was severely hurt. Having worked as a university administrator during this period and leading an academic task force to find solutions, Dr. Bronner reflects on what went wrong and the fixes that are necessary to get American higher education back on track. He proposes a cultural shift in light of the decentering of America’s campuses that begins with recasting “general education” in the first year.
Core of the Problem or the Solution? The Future of General Education in and Governmental Control of American Colleges and Universities
Florida Senate Bill 266 in 2024 set a legal precedent for other states and a national movement by establishing governmental controls on the process by which general education is managed by universities. It instituted limitations on the offering of courses and programs related to “identity politics” and shifted management of academic content to government. Based on experience with internal and external stakeholders, including legislators, regarding general education reform Bronner reviews the repercussions of such legal efforts to not only change general education in the United States but also to alter the very educational philosophy of “the liberal and human tradition” that originally launched general education of colleges and universities toward vocational ends and a business-driven mission. As a case study, the essay discusses the presenter’s experience as Dean as well as consultant to major state universities and private liberal arts institutions. Bronner presents an integrative model moving away from the "critical thinking" mantra that has been unconvincing to social and cultural experiences fostered in new curricular formats informed by the altruistic function of higher education to be community engaged, globally aware, leadership minded, and most of all innovative. Thus, general education might be reimagined as needed cultural or foundational connected learning.
The Cultural Upheaval of College Campuses
The cultural landscape, and purpose, of "campus life" has changed dramatically since conducting a national survey in 2012 that was reported in Bronner’s book Campus Traditions. After a devastating pandemic, financial crisis, economic and legislative pressure, public confidence crisis, and digital/AI revolution, campuses and the maturation as well as societal awareness they offered have been upended, leaving administrators and parents, as well as students, confused about the purpose of their post-secondary education in a new form of "future shock." No longer dominated by residential students and immersive in-person experiences, the campus culture that once built community and encouraged identity formation has become alienating with each individual being left to their own devices. Although modern conditions dictate that there is no going back to the pastoral ideal of the analog days, social and psychological distress of students—and their mentors—require a concerted effort to rebuild a culture fostering growth and interconnectedness. With new research from the multivolume Youth Cultures in America and reflection on the campus cultures in Campus Traditions, Bronner suggests principles for community building that meet the needs of students entering an exhilarating yet scary new age.
Born in Auschwitz: A Holocaust Family Saga and Its Lessons
Simon Bronner recounts the dramatic experience of his family whose members were among the approximately 100 Jewish survivors of the Holocaust from the town of Oświęcim, Poland, known more popularly as Auschwitz. He traces their memories of antisemitism and genocide during the War and their global journey after liberation from concentration and labor camps to Germany, France, Israel, Soviet Union, and the United States. Tracing their struggles into the twenty-first century and their search for redemption, including a trip back to Poland, Bronner draws lessons about coping with trauma, hate, and alienation and their profound vision for repairing the world.
Americanness and Americanization: The Politics, Economy, and Psychology of the United States in the World
Economic data identify culture as America’s number one export which raises questions not only about what constitutes American culture, but how it changes other countries in the process of globalization. Following his success with the book Americanness, Bronner explores prominent examples that originally were encoded with cultural values of individualism, freedom, abundance, materialism, and progress, including food, clothing, sports, and entertainment. In hard economic terms, exports of arts and cultural goods and services have risen steadily since the twentieth century to 70 billion dollars, more than any other industry. In political terms, though, this driver of an American-styled globalization has raised criticism that suggests a decoding of spreading American culture abroad as a function of military and capitalistic global domination. Economic data shows that the globalization has been uneven; the regions with the highest consumption of American products are in Europe and East Asia. That data raise questions about the contexts that favor consumption and the likelihood that American cultural products will spread from there to other continents. The impression is that globalization is American in cast, embraced for its democratization and “coolness,” and yet cursed for its exploitation and hegemony. Rather than observing consumers blindly adopting American ways, Bronner finds surprising ways that American culture been adapted as well as resisted by countries outside the United States, especially with the growth of digital culture.
The Strongman in Sports and Politics
The twenty-first century has been characterized as the era of the political strongman at the same time as it has given rise to a global phenomenon of the strongman in physical culture with the rise of national and international “strongest man” contests. Bronner has researched the intersection of these two rising trends and analyzes the lessons from the “iron game” of physical culture that has spread to the political realm, and back into sports, epitomized by the performative demonstration of strength by “Hulk” Hogan at the Republican National Convention in 2024.
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