That all happens tonight on cspan2s booktv. Next on booktv, amy binder takes an in depth look at experiences and activism of conservative students on the campuses of americas colleges and universities. This is about an hour and 15 minutes. Well, thank you very much for coming out on this rainy thursday. And thank you very much to christine and tulare for inviting me to the center. For more than half a century, conservative critics have been in think thanks, foundation and the media have championed the cause of conservative College Students who they say suffer on College Campuses. In books with such titles as freefall of the american university, and tenured radicals, critics charge the american Higher Education has become the place a liberal if not radical faculties, and that in the classrooms of the politicized university, middle of the road students complacently consume their professors misinformation. Moderate students are smug liberal students are smug and feeling that theyre on the righteous side of politics, and conserve students have to decide whether to endorse their professors high rates while they are voiced their outrage corroding the risk of sacrificing their grades. To mitigate the effects of the leftist campus, while the conservatives organizations have been put in place at David Horowitz has introduced the academic bill of rights to legally protect students from liberal orthodoxy while others like the Young Americas Foundation sponsor conferences that celebrity in the movement. The Clare Boothe Luce policy institute is targeted to College Women while intellectual organizations like the Intercollegiate Studies Institute started by william f. Buckley, or the Federalist Society or the institute for humane studies at George Mason University provide internships and seminars for conservatives academics and future jurist. The list goes on with the support of foundations with many familiar names. All this movement to build a corporate young ideological, dependable lawyers, journalists, Congressional Staff and voters has been a central priority of the right. Very few social scientists have studied effort to mobilize the students or to examine just how these Students Experience the undergraduate lies. This has left us in an odd situation of not knowing if the accusations leveled against universities resonate with the students on whose behalf they are made. Nor do we know much of anything else about these students, such as when and how did they become conservative . What are the political turning point . Both before and during college. What are the issues they care about, and how do these differ from their elders, if they do . What do conservatives didnt know in the thought of all this, how do networks planned . We been more or less in the dark except for a few media reports about how students on the right enact their conservatism on campus, what kinds of speech and action do they use. And just how do conservatives speech and action ver vary from campus to campus, if at all . In the absence of good social science research, one could have a general sense that conservative College Students are fairly homogeneous bunch who more or less mimicked by the national gop does, but is it true . This is where my coauthor kate would and i can ge but i apologe for the extremely crowded slide on the board become interested in having you understand our conceptual framework, and we commend with her book becoming right which is a case study of two universities in choosing to study concerned students at a private university and western flagship Public University our idea was to to see if we get better person university might be understood uniquely shaped students politics. Sociologist and other social scientists have long been interested in universities affects on students political attitude, their behaviors, values of the bulk of this research known as political socialization or college effects Research Uses national our campus level data sets based on surveys to measure whether students change in their medical participation rates like voting, whether that increases or decreases because of college, or it measures college modified students political orientation one way or another. But by my estimation as important as this work is, its also a rather thin way of thinking about students political development. Or how to actually experience politics during their college years. Was a political socialization literature can do, wasnt designed to do other theoretically or methodologically is consider the multiple ways that College Campuses as interactional settings among lots of different people on campus which are made up of distinctive organizational features, housing, class size, student and faculty ratios as well as cultural understandings of who we are on this campus, as a campus community. How it is these a campus features might it mean to you in shape young peoples political ideas and actions. By using qualitative methods, in depth interviews, field work on these campuses and also at conferences and in conservatives organizations, we wanted to see if and how universities play a significant role in fundamentally constituting new political ideas and discovering new models for actions in ones conservative behavior. We been very fortunate are not alone in how we think College Campuses should be understood as generative systems of meaning rather than of repositories of previously formed individual level perspectives among students. So for those of you in and out of sociology education, i dont know if theyre any sociologist of education in the audience, but you wont be surprised when we position our study on the same bookshelves as several recently published works which show how universities act as hubs and incubators for particular types of students to flourish. So, for example, Elizabeth Armstrong and laura hamilton, although not studying political formation, to look at how a Public University in the midwest a setup to facilitate what they call a party pathway. Their party dorms comment very ample fraternity network and so forth, and this creates the identities of partiers at this university. Shamus con in in the seven book looks out at elite boarding schools manufacture in students particular models of selfconfidence and self deserving is as they move on to college. We are also informed that Older Workers as i indicated above in a particular i withdraw your attention to dimaggio endeavors studies about Higher Education in different ways. Charters unique identities and lifestyle possibilities. We are bringing politics into the mix. On the concerns of research into things, theres also very fortunately because we need to learn a lot more about the politics of the right in our polarized society as larry mentioned, theres a new body of work that focuses not only on christian or extremist conservatism or conservatism among women which is where most sociological attention to conservatism has been paid in the past i would argue, but also on fiscal conservatism, on the infrastructure of conservatism, the think tanks, foundations, universities, centrist and on the historical advent of antiestablishment or movement conservatism, including actual new projects on a tea party, i indicated fubs educational and conservative Research Projects on the slide but in the grand scheme what im talking about today as well as in the book is ringing these Research Streams together to look at a University Campuses and the days conservative politics intersects at how college shapes the nature, activities and fundamentally the formation of politically conservative self. Turning now for more conceptual framework, i want to say a few words about the case studies schools and our sample. As i started thinking about this project in the summer of 2007, i had a whole bunch of case studies, campuses i thought i might look at, as many as six at one time. That didnt prove feasible. I selected eastern elites and western public universities for comparison of on dimensions of both similarity and differences such as classic case study selection methodology designed to yield insight. In terms of similarities, both are secular institutions although eastern elite, whether religioureligious institution tt sounded but thats a long time ago. Those are research one universities being they grant ph. Ds and research is a primary focus of faculty and graduate students. And politically at least by reputation both at the schools are in the conservative spotlight as liberal bastions. So if you listen to conservative am radio we read the wall street journal editorial page, you might hear complaints about both of these universities. In terms of differences, one is private or public with all of the differences this distinction makes in a students life. They differ in their admissions selectivity is a eastern elite takes about one in every 11 applicants. Western public takes about one into. They also differ in size of faculty and students can eastern has 7000 graduates, 71, western public has about 25,000 students with a student to faculty ratio of 18 to one. They differ in both their organizational features that a mentioned earlier housing, dining, physical size of campus, percent of students in organizations, as well as in cultural features including what we might call their institutional ethos. Some eastern is one of the most prestigious institutions in Higher Education in the world. Wow western is known for its faculty research. Is also known to be a party school. Is a place where students know that they can enjoy a recreational atmosphere. To find interviews for the study i began with clubs and other groups that posted on the internet for both of these campuses. In 2008 just before and after the president ial election, i made this is before the emergence of the tea party, i interviewed leaders and members of each campuses College Republicans, Prolife Groups, conservative newspapers as well as conservative columnist for the mainstream newspapers on campus. Antiguncontrol groups, libertarians and so when. Mostly these were active conservatives on campus. They had a reputation for being conservative, but through a chain i was able to find some students who were more behind the scenes. This isnt totally about activist students on campus. I conducted 50 students and alumni interviews in all out and all of this is so committed by another 50 interviews for 100 total with National ConservativeOrganization Leaders with administrative and other folks. Demographically, on both campuses the students were as you might expect from reading pew research polls or looking at the General Social survey, most of the students were predominantly white. There were more men and women in our sample, and they were generally fairly religious. Ran the gamut from being very religious, either evangelical or catholic to kind of spiritual but not religious. And we had a few agnostics and atheists in the group as well but generally this is a fairly religious bunch. A majority on both campuses were middle to upper middle class but although eastern elite interviewees tended to come from families that were more highly educated and affluent than western families. That said though, our interviews interviews displayed various. We had a few students at western and eastern whose parents had graduated from college, one or two whose parents had only graduated from high school, and advanced degrees as well. In the final analysis, the two samples were not as different on social class background as one might think and studying very elite private university and a Public University. So with all of the youngest let me now get your findings in the book. Ill focus on the issues i raised earlier about the presumed homogeneity of conservative College Students across the country and that will do this in particular by drilling down on students political styles on these two case studies campuses. When i talk about styles are not talking just about students and alums stated ideological beliefs or the doctrines that they addicted but also their expressive practices in the service of those beliefs. And i do this because in the increasingly polarized National Environment and even within the Republican Party itself, we are seeing that the styles of politics is becoming, are becoming as important as the ideas of politics. Insofar as particular styles of animosity, gridlock, a lack of compromise. Ill open my discussion of conservative College Student styles with a couple of vignettes from our data. So it is 2007 and members of the College Republicans at western flagship had just stage an event called the affirmative action bake sale. I know this is no stranger to you at berkeley. The bake sale is a wellknown scene of political theater that content students use at many universities across the country selling cookies at a higher price to white students than they do to, say, africanamerican and latino students. The bake sale is set to highlight the insidious effects of racebased affirmative action. It has a point of view but when students at western talk about what its like to actually stage the event, its clear that revel in the shared fun and confrontation that the activity stirs a. One interviewees had we are out there and its like five College Republicans, and for about half an Hour Community members have come by and say im a white guy and ive got to pay a dollar. People are getting into it. This bake sale which is not from western, prices were inflated. People were getting into it. Of course, meanwhile, theres a noontime rally organized by the diversity thugs, by which means politically correct group like women or racial ethnic minorities. Theyve got their bullhorns out, theyre angry, they got the science and they have no problem with protesters but i want the protesters there. Another student said of the affirmative action bake sale and events like to come if you wake up in the morning and someone calls you a bigot, you know youre going to have a good day. This kind of event is one of a very large number of actions that conservative students stage on College Campuses alongside catch an illegal alien day where one statistic designated document or illegal and others try to catch them. The Global Warming beach party where students mock the theory of Climate Change with beer and suntan oil. And the conservative coming out day, a twist on lgbt celebrati celebration. And such events are promoted by National Conservative organizations which spends millions a year helping conservatives learned the activists in what we are calling provocative style. Meanwhile, 2000 miles away at eastern elite, an event like the bake sale is considered not so much even by administrators and faculty who dont like them. But more so by conservative students themselves. At this private university, concerted undergraduates denounce confrontational actions just for the sake of pushing the buttons. As one student described it, look, i dont think anything like that is helpful. One person walks up and realize this is an affirmative action bake so and then walked away thinking, wow, that was a great illustration of the problems with affirmative action. The only thing ive ever seen coming from putting on an event like that is lack of communication at others concurs saying it would be unsuitable for their campus. Even while they are also ideologically antiaffirmative action. Instead of provoking, they prefer to use what we call civilized discourse with which they attempt to engage liberals liberals and discussion of the art about ideas, research, not good timing of both sides or least thats the stated intent. We found that these two styles pretty much are mutually exclusive. The provocative style almost never gets used at eastern, and when it does student groups were not to use it again. One interviewee at eastern elite set our member freshman year our posters would be like, life starts at conception and ends at planned parenthood. We would have blood splatters, or we would have a fetus developindevelopin g, an and the fees we be seeing Different Things like i want to be an Airline Pilot when i grow. Those like crazy. People hated him, i learned from that experience. The students go on to say that his Prolife Group started different kinds of campaigns in light of this failure. For baby bottles, pregnancy counseling and to work across the ill what he referred to as the sometimes crazy women center on campus. In other words, his provise grip, many members had use tactics like this when they were growing up, didnt like the controversy they were stirring up at eastern elite unlike at western what that was a much the point. At eastern students for the civilized discourse topics appropriate for their campus. At western, meanwhile, students told us they shunned this more respectful style because quite frankly its not conservative enough and it is lame. So these two styles that dont meet on these two campuses. However, theres more to this story. While each of these is the dominant form of expression, we found there are also two subordinate or submerged styles used by conservative students. No one style is completely monolithic on either campus. On both campuses a smaller set of student