Abstract
John R. Thelin’s essay, Academic Procession presents a biography of his experiences as a historian who studies higher education. The thread that runs through this account is his commitment to bringing the history of colleges and universities to life. His aim has been to connect past and present in exploring significant issues about higher education. For each era, he focuses on questions of access and exclusion, uses of campus architecture as monuments and memorials, historical statistics on institutional budgets, public policies and higher education, college sports, student life and issues of race, gender, religion and diversity.
His story goes back to 1960 and covers crucial events facing colleges and universities. He gives great attention to students and the changing experience of “going to college” as part of American life. It also includes an account of how research about higher education developed into a significant academic topic. The academic procession in which he has participated has taken place during an exciting, important era in American higher education.
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Thelin, J.R. (2023). Academic Procession: Bringing the History of Higher Education to Life. In: Perna, L.W. (eds) Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research. Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, vol 38. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94844-3_1-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94844-3_1-1
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