Carleton A&I Convo with Deborah Appleman | September 27, 2024

Carleton Convos

Academic Freedom and Necessity of Discomfort: The Trouble with Cancel Culture and Content Warnings was presented by Deborah Appleman. She drew much of the discussion from her most recent book Literature and the New Culture Wars.

Deborah Appleman is the Hollis L. Caswell Professor of Educational Studies at Carleton College. Professor Appleman taught high school English for nine years before receiving her doctorate from the University of Minnesota. She has been a Visiting Professor at Syracuse University and at the University of California-Berkeley. She is the author of more than a dozen books on literacy education, including Critical Encounters in Secondary English: Teaching Literary Theory to Adolescents, (winner of the Richard A. Meade Award); Adolescent Literacy and the Teaching of Reading; Teaching Literature to Adolescents, Uncommon Core; and Reading Better, Reading Smarter. Her 2019 book, Word No Bars Can Hold: Literacy Learning in Prison, draws from her experiences teaching creative writing and literature classes in a high security prison for men, where she has taught since 2007. Her most recent book, Literature and the New Culture Wars, examines current political challenges in the teaching of literature. At Carleton, Professor Appleman teaches courses such as Educational Psychology, Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy, and Teenage Wasteland. She also mentors and supervises student teachers. She was Carleton’s second Posse mentor, and has served on a variety of elected committees including College Council, chair of the Faculty Affairs Committee, the Faculty Personnel Committee and the Admissions and Financial Aid Committee. She is currently chair of the department of Educational Studies and also co-director of the American Studies program, where she has also served as Director.

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