Academic Innovation for the Public Good

Join us in 2024 to think about the future of higher education

Stanford Digital Education and Trinity College organize a virtual author conversation series on how higher education can enhance the public good. Authors are interviewed by expert moderators via Zoom, with the discussions focused on new ways that academic innovations and partnerships can strengthen the impact of higher education. Audience members have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the discussion. Now in its third season, the series is co-sponsored by more than 20 colleges and universities.

This fall, we explore how digital education can support the resilience and vibrancy of our democracy with a special event a month before election day.

October 9
Election 2024: Education to Reduce Online Disinformation

A conversation with author Sam Wineburg
Wednesday, October 9, 1-2 p.m. Pacific Time

Register for October 9

Voters are being besieged with questionable information online about elections. How do we teach people, young and old, to parse falsehood from fact and make the educated judgments democracy demands?

Sam Wineburg, co-author of VERIFIED: How to Think Straight, Get Duped Less, and Make Wise Decisions about What to Believe Online, will discuss strategies he and his co-author Mike Caulfield have developed to ascertain the reliability of the latest stories circulating over the internet. In a discussion with Stanford Vice Provost for Digital Education Matthew Rascoff, he will lay out some practical, accessible steps everyone should take to assess the reliability of online information before they engage with it or amplify it. Digital literacy, Wineburg says, is essential for the civic health of a public that is increasingly online — not just to bank, shop, and find entertainment, but to socialize, discuss, become informed, and vote.

Wineburg is the Margaret Jacks Professor of Education, Emeritus, at Stanford University, and the founder of the nonprofit Digital Inquiry Group (previously known as Stanford History Education Group). 

Past events

Over the last three years, Stanford Digital Education and Trinity College have hosted 21 events. Videos are available of all the conversations on our website, with transcripts for the more recent events as well.

In winter/spring 2024, our book conversations explored how universities can lead and adapt, with two describing potential partnerships and new institutions — and one, a memoir, examining a surprising personal path to university leadership.

January 24 
The Synthetic University: How Higher Education Can Benefit from Shared Solutions and Save Itself 

A conversation with author James Shulman

 View the January 24 recording and transcript

How can the spiraling cost of college tuition be contained? In his book The Synthetic University, James Shulman, vice president and chief operating officer at the American Council of Learned Societies, argues that colleges and universities can address it by partnering with mission-driven, market-supported organizations. 

Shulman was interviewed by Mitchell Stevens, professor at Stanford Graduate School of Education.
 

March 20
Up Home: One Girl's Journey 

A conversation with author Ruth Simmons

View the March 20 recording and transcript

Ruth J. Simmons received her master’s and doctorate in Romance languages and literature from Harvard University and went on to serve as president of Smith College, Brown University, and Prairie View A&M University. Her memoir, Up Home: One Girl’s Journey, is an intimate, unsparing work of memory that conveys the transformative power of education.

The book begins with Simmons’ girlhood under Jim Crow in rural east Texas, as the twelfth child of sharecroppers. It continues in segregated Houston in the all-Black Fifth Ward, where her family moved before she started second grade. It ends with her experiences as a scholarship student at Dillard University and at Wellesley College, where she spent her junior year. 

Simmons was interviewed by James Campbell, professor of history at Stanford, who was on the faculty at Brown when Simmons was president. During that time, Simmons appointed Campbell to lead the committee that produced a groundbreaking report on the university’s historical ties to the slave trade and slavery. It was the first instance of a major university taking such a step to come to terms with its past.

May 15
The New Global Universities: Reinventing Education in the 21st Century 

A conversation with authors Bryan Penprase and Noah Pickus

View the May 15 recording and transcript

In their book The New Global Universities, Bryan Penprase and Noah Pickus explore how eight new universities across the globe were planned, funded, and launched, offering lessons both for future founders and for existing universities seeking to create new opportunities. Penprase is a visiting scholar at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and vice president for sponsored research and external academic relations, as well as professor of physics and astronomy, at Soka University. Pickus is associate provost at Duke University, with responsibilities in academic strategy, global initiatives, educational innovation, and policy engagement.

Penprase and Pickus were interviewed by Minu Ipe, managing director and vice chair of the University Design Institute at Arizona State University.

Thank you to our program partners

Badavas Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning (Bentley University)
Brown University School of Professional Studies  
Dartmouth College
Mount Holyoke College
Notre Dame Learning
University of Pennsylvania Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Innovation
University of Michigan Center for Academic Innovation

Thank you to our co-sponsors

Carnegie Mellon University
Center for Social Innovation at the Stanford Graduate School of Business
Cornell University
Duke Learning Innovation
Georgetown University Center for Design in Learning and Scholarship
Harvard Online
Jay Hurt Hub for Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Davidson 
Johns Hopkins University
Minerva Project
McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning at Princeton University
MIT
North Dakota State University
Northwestern University Women's Center
Stanford Pathways Lab
University of Wyoming
Vanderbilt

If your institution is not represented on this list, and you would like to become a program partner or co-sponsor, please e-mail jennyjrobinson@stanford.edu. Program partners contribute financial support. There is no cost to co-sponsor; you simply post the events on your local events calendars and newsletters and we will include your institution on the list.

Banner photo (top): The interiors of the Lathrop Library and East Asia Library. Photo credit: Linda A. Cicero.