Michael S. Roth — historian, curator, author, and public advocate for liberal education — is the 16th president of Wesleyan University and former president of California College of the Arts. He is the author of six books, including Beyond the University: Why Liberal Education Matters (Yale University Press, 2014), winner of AAC&U’s 2016 Frederic W. Ness Book Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to the understanding and improvement of liberal education. President Roth’s newest book is Safe Enough Spaces: A Pragmatist’s Approach to Inclusion, Free Speech, and Political Correctness (Yale University Press, 2019), which addresses some of the most contentious issues in higher education in the US, including affirmative action, safe spaces, and questions of free speech.

This event is part of the National Center for Institutional Diversity (NCID) Research and Scholarship Seminar Series, which features scholars who advance our understanding of historical and contemporary social issues related to identity, difference, culture, representation, power, oppression, and inequality.

The series also highlights how research and scholarship can address current and contemporary social issues.