Syllabi Reveal Classroom Monoculture

Analyzing millions of college syllabi, the authors find courses on contentious issues overwhelmingly assign ideologically aligned texts while rarely pairing them with prominent critiques. Example: Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow is ubiquitous, yet James Forman Jr.’s Pulitzer‑winning counterpoint appears with it in under 4% of syllabi, and other critics even less, keeping total counter‑assignments under ~10%. — If classrooms systematically shield students from major disagreements, it challenges universities’ claims to intellectual diversity and informs concrete curriculum and governance reforms.