Join Dr. Davarian L. Baldwin, the author of this semester's MIT Reads selection, in dialogue with MIT Barton L. Weller Professor of History Craig Steven Wilder. 

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.

This event is free and open to all, but you must pre-register. Please join us for refreshments after the discussion.

• Copies of the book will be available to purchase at the in-person event with a 30-minute book signing afterwards.
• For virtual registrants: URL will be emailed closer to the event. 

Accessibility: ASL and CART Services 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 22 for further accommodation requests.

Discussion event: MIT community members are invited to join us for a small, in-person group discussion of Baldwin's In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower on Wednesday, October 30, at 12:00pm in The Nexus at Hayden Library. Registration is required and lunch will be provided.

About the speakers:

Davarian L. Baldwin (above, left) is an internationally recognized historian, cultural critic, and public advocate. He is the Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of American Studies and Founding Director of the Smart Cities Research Lab at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. His academic and political commitments have focused on global cities, and particularly the diverse and marginalized communities that struggle to maintain sustainable lives in urban locales. Baldwin is the award-winning author of several books, most recently, In The Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities Are Plundering Our Cities, and has served as the consultant and text author for The World of the Harlem Renaissance: A Jigsaw Puzzle (2022). His commentaries and opinions have been featured in numerous outlets from NBC News, BBC, and HULU to USA Today, The Washington Post, and TIME Magazine. Baldwin was named a 2022 Freedom Scholar by the Marguerite Casey Foundation for his work in racial and economic justice.

Craig Steven Wilder (above, right) is a historian of American institutions and ideas who began his career as a community organizer in the South Bronx. He is the Barton L. Weller Professor of History at MIT and a senior fellow at the Bard Prison Initiative. His recent books include Ebony & Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America’s Universities; In the Company of Black Men: The African Influence on African American Culture in New York City; and A Covenant with Color: Race and Social Power in Brooklyn. He has advised and appeared in numerous historical documentaries, and has directed or advised exhibits at many regional and national museums. He has taught at Columbia University, Dartmouth College, Williams College, and Long Island University, and has been a visiting professor at the New School University and University College London.

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