Journalist Chris Rufo joined Hillsdale College as a distinguished fellow on Oct. 4.
Rufo is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor at City Journal. He is the author of “America’s Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything,” which made the New York Times Bestseller List after its release in July.
“Chris Rufo is a smart and energetic man who has built a career out of his ingenuity,” College President Larry Arnn said. “Beginning as an army of one, he has informed legions and uncovered the abuses of the great and mighty. He does not fear, but he takes care to be in the right. He will be an excellent colleague.”
Rufo is best known for his investigative journalism on critical race theory and gender theory in schools and corporations. He joins the ranks of military historian Victor Davis Hanson and C.S. Lewis scholar Michael Ward as distinguished fellows.
Rufo will teach courses and give lectures to the college community. This week, he is teaching a one-credit course titled “Culture War and Public Policy.”
“I’m trying to give students a deeper understanding of some of the culture war dynamics that we see in the news in the contemporary political debate,” Rufo said. “It’s a class that seeks to go deeper than a simple left-right understanding of the Culture War.”
Rufo said he wants students to be able to effectively interpret the issues of the day.
“When students finish the class after the end of 10 hours, they’ll be able to read the news and understand contemporary controversies at a much deeper level, and understand some of the fundamental changes that are expressed, but in some ways hidden, in these cable news fights.”
After teaching a class in spring 2022 as the Dow Journalism Program’s Eugene C. Pulliam Fellow, Rufo had a conversation with Arnn about Aristotle, Churchill, and the cultural issues of the day.
“I think he’s an extraordinary scholar, leader, administrator, and someone who really understands the purpose of education and the need for practical statesmanship and politics,” Rufo said. “That discussion, as well as the class at the Pulliam fellowship, really sparked a desire within me to be more involved with Hillsdale, and I sent an email to Dr. Arnn and said, ‘Hey, would it be possible to start teaching some additional short courses and doing some additional lectures and publications?’”
Arnn offered Rufo a distinguished fellowship. Rufo said he wants the course to guide students toward making a better culture.
“I want them to understand that the world we live in is driven by profound changes in intellectual, social, economic and political life,” Rufo said. “And for those students who are interested in pursuing politics, or public policy, or even academic careers, they shouldn’t be seduced by the popular symbolism that you see in mass media.”
Rufo hopes to teach a class every fall, he said.
Sophomore Maggie McGee, a student in Rufo’s class, said her experience so far has been excellent. McGee said the class has taught her to articulate some of the troubling things she has observed in the culture.
“I have really enjoyed the structure of the class, in which we identify the greatest threats to American culture and discuss how to combat them,” McGee said.
Rufo has a personal connection to Hillsdale, as his grandfather grew up in the city and graduated from the college in 1942 before serving in World War II.
“He actually paid his way through college working as a painter, so he painted some of the campus buildings many years ago,” Rufo said. “Hillsdale allowed him to get a bachelor’s degree before he went to war. He then got a master’s degree in electrical engineering, was very successful, and moved out to California, but it all started here.”
Rufo said he is excited to continue meeting students.
“It’s just an honor and a privilege to be working with Hillsdale,” he said, “and I look forward to this week and coming back soon.”
