Is the University a Failure of Elitism?

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I think as people who digest a lot of journalism and media, your assumption is that the role is to criticize the institution. And I often found in your work when I was sort of reviewing it that you also put yourself the writer in the role of the institution. You write a lot about institutions, whether they be hospitals, prisons, universities. But maybe what was compelling to me was that in the hope of fulfilling these very like progressive, inclusive ideals, the university's still run by people who kind of didn't understand like what it looks like on the ground to have the ideals that they're espousing.

Rachel Aviv is a staff writer for The New Yorker. Her new book is Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us.

“I used to feel that if I knew everything, that was a good sign. And I've become more aware that if you know everything you want to argue, that's not such a good sign…. Do I have a genuine question? Is there something I’m trying to figure out? Then the story is worth telling. But if I don’t really have a question or if my question is already answered, then maybe that should give you pause.”

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