JEFFREY AARON SNYDER
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Jeff Snyder is Professor of Educational Studies at Carleton College. He is a historian of education who studies the modern United States. His work examines questions about national identity, intellectual freedom, and the purpose of public education in a diverse, democratic society. His teaching focuses on past and present educational policy and school reform movements, paying particular attention to how schools serve as key battlegrounds in the “culture wars.” 

 

Snyder has a keen interest in issues of academic freedom and free expression, especially as they relate to liberal arts education. He was a Fellow with the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement during the 2022-2023 academic-year, along with his Carleton colleague Amna Khalid. They focused on threats to academic freedom in Florida, the state at the epicenter of the movement to ban "woke indoctrination" from public school classrooms. Based on interviews Snyder and Khalid conducted with Florida faculty members, they submitted an amicus brief  supporting the plaintiffs who are challenging the Stop WOKE Act. 

 

Snyder is the author of the book Making Black History: The Color Line, Culture, and Race in the Age of Jim Crow. It shows how the study and celebration of the Black past became a pillar of African American life during the Jim Crow era, intersecting with the development of segregated Black schools, the Harlem Renaissance, and the civil rights movement.

 

Snyder's articles, essays, and book reviews have appeared in academic journals such as History of Education Quarterly, Schools, and Teachers College Record. He is a frequent contributor to newspapers and magazines, including The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New Republic, and The Washington Post. His work has been cited in The Atlantic, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, among other media outlets.

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A Carleton alumnus, Snyder majored in psychology and minored in educational studies. He holds an EdM in Learning and Teaching from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a PhD in the History of Education from New York University. ​Before pursuing graduate studies, he taught English to Speakers of Other Languages to students of all ages and ability levels in the Czech Republic, France, China, India, Nepal, and the United States.

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Snyder co-hosts a podcast called Banished​, which explores higher education, free expression, and the culture wars.