Please join us for a small, in-person discussion of Davarian L. Baldwin's latest book. In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower explores the increasingly parasitic relationship between universities and our cities. Across America, universities have become big businesses—and our cities their company towns. But there is a cost to those who live in their shadow. Through eye-opening conversations with city leaders, low-wage workers tending to students’ needs, and local activists fighting encroachment, scholar Davarian L. Baldwin makes clear who benefits from unchecked university power—and who is made vulnerable. In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower is a wake-up call to the reality that higher education is no longer the ubiquitous public good it was once thought to be. But as Baldwin shows, there is an alternative vision for urban life, one that necessitates a more equitable relationship between our cities and our universities.

The event is free, but you must pre-register. This event is open to the MIT Community only. Lunch will be provided. 

Our events are enriched by your presence and we are committed to making them accessible. Please email ce-lib@mit.edu by October 18 for further accommodation requests.

This semester's MIT Reads book was chosen in partnership by the MIT Libraries and the MIT Press.