❓WHAT HAPPENED: A Harvard professor announced his departure after 40 years, citing the institution’s focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in admissions and its draconian COVID policies.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Historian James Hankins, Harvard University, and the Hamilton School of Classical and Civic Education at the University of Florida.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Hankins announced his departure in a December 2025 essay, following a retirement contract signed in 2021.
💬KEY QUOTE: “When you don’t teach the young what civilization is, it turns out, people become uncivilized.” – James Hankins
🎯IMPACT: Hankins criticized Harvard’s shift away from Western history, alleging it contributes to moral and intellectual disorientation among younger generations.
James Hankins, a historian who spent 40 years teaching at Harvard University, has explained his decision to leave this institution, pointing to the university’s emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies in admissions, its handling of COVID-19 measures, and a move away from prioritizing instruction in Western history.
Hankins disclosed that his decision to depart solidified in 2021, following the implementation of draconian pandemic rules, including mandatory masking and online-only classes. He also voiced concerns over alterations to admissions criteria that emerged after the death of George Floyd. “In past years this candidate would have risen immediately to the top of the applicant pool. In 2021, however, I was told informally by a member of the admissions committee that ‘that’ (meaning admitting a white male) was ‘not happening this year,'” Hankins recalled of one decision.
The scholar described instances where outstanding white male applicants with strong qualifications were turned down for graduate studies. He warned that similar practices occurred elsewhere, noting, “Graduate admissions committees around the country had been following the same unspoken protocol as ours. The one exception I found to the general exclusion of white males had begun life as a female.”
Hankins further condemned Harvard’s handling of anti-Semitic protests amid the Gaza conflict, describing it as “shocking indifference.”
Hankins plans to move to the Hamilton School of Classical and Civic Education at the University of Florida, which he commended for recruiting experts in Western disciplines. Considering the wider effects of Harvard’s reduced focus on Western history, he observed, “When late liberal pedagogy replaced Western civilization courses with global history, serious harm was done to the socialization of young Americans. When you don’t teach the young what civilization is, it turns out, people become uncivilized.”
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