News & Events
Join us for a conversation between Moynihan Public Scholar Yascha Mounk and Jane Coaston
Date/Time: October 2, 2023, 3-5pm
Location: The City College of New York, Shepard Hall Room 350
Moynihan Public Scholar Yascha Mounk traces the origin of a set of ideas about identity and social justice that is rapidly transforming America—and explains why it will fail to accomplish its noble goals
Mounk argues that over the past decades, a healthy appreciation for the culture and heritage of minority groups has transformed into a counterproductive obsession with group identity in all its forms. A new ideology aiming to place each person’s matrix of identities at the center of social, cultural, and political life has quickly become highly influential. It stifles discourse, vilifies mutual influence as cultural appropriation, denies that members of different groups can truly understand one another, and insists that the way governments treat their citizens should depend on the color of their skin.
Join the Moynihan Center and journalist Jane Coaston for a discussion of The Identity Trap, Mounk’s new book about how a relatively marginal set of ideas has come to gain tremendous influence in business, media, and government; why the application of these ideas to areas from education to public policy is proving to be so deeply counterproductive; and why universal, humanist values can best serve the vital goal of true equality.
Yascha Mounk
Yascha Mounk is a Professor of the Practice of International Affairs at Johns Hopkins University and an inaugural Moynihan Public Scholar at The City College of New York. Known for his work on the crisis of democracy and the defense of philosophically liberal values, he is a Contributing Editor at The Atlantic, a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, the Founder of Persuasion, and a Publisher at Die Zeit. He is the host of The Good Fight podcast and the author of four books: Stranger in My Own Country: A Jewish Family in Modern Germany; The Age of Responsibility: Luck, Choice, and the Welfare State; The People versus Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It; and most recently,The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure.
Jane Coaston
Jane Coaston is a New York Times contributor with a focus on American conservatism. Her work has been featured in outlets including CNN, ABC News and National Review.