What should every college graduate know—regardless of major? That’s the question general education is meant to answer. Yet at many institutions, this once-clear mandate has devolved into an incoherent sprawl of electives. Foundational courses in history, literature, philosophy, and science have been replaced by sprawling menus of niche topics and vague categories like “historical thinking” or “aesthetic expression.” The result? Students graduate without a shared base of knowledge, and the humanities retreat further into irrelevance.

How did we get here? Why did faculty—especially in the humanities—abandon the idea of a common core? And is it too late to reverse course?

Join the Heterodox Academy (HxA) Campus Community at UNC Chapel Hill for this provocative and timely talk by Mark Bauerlein who will trace the unraveling of general education over the past several decades and explore the cultural, political, and institutional forces that drove it. He will also discuss how to restore academic coherence and intellectual seriousness to undergraduate education—and explain why reclaiming a core curriculum is not only possible, but essential to the future of the university.

Prof. Bauerlein will also address the HxA-Chapel Hill Community at our monthly dinner the following night, 9/4.

Please RSVP in advance. Contact Florence Dore at fdore@unc.edu with any questions.

When: Wednesday, September 3, 2025 at 5:30-6:45 PM

Where: UNC Chapel Hill Student Union Auditorium