What place do departments like Africana Studies, Latino/a Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies have at a liberal arts college like Williams? Does reading The Republic teach critical thinking skills in a superior way than a class like Queer Gardens?

Peter Wood, author of “Diversity: The Invention of a Concept” and “What Does Bowdoin Teach?” will be talking about diversity, identity politics and the state of liberal arts colleges this Friday in Perry Goat Room at 8pm.

Over the past few decades, liberal arts colleges have made tremendous changes in terms of their values and what they perceive their role and responsibilities to be. Mr Wood’s work addresses those changes with a uniquely critical eye. His most recent work on Bowdoin received widespread media coverage from the Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, along with newspapers like the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald.

Sponsored by the Williams College Debate Union