Michael D. Rectenwald is an American author and former professor. A member of the

Mises Caucus The Libertarian Party Mises Caucus (LPMC) is a caucus within the Libertarian Party (United States), Libertarian Party in the United States that promotes paleolibertarianism, fusionism, as well as a more conservative version of American libertar ...

of the Libertarian Party, he has written about 19th-century British

secularism Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on naturalistic considerations, uninvolved with religion. It is most commonly thought of as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state and may be broadened ...

and is a critic of the contemporary

social justice Social justice is justice in relation to the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society where individuals' rights are recognized and protected. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has of ...

movement.

Early life and education

Rectenwald's 2018 memoir states that he is the seventh of nine children. Rectenwald's undergraduate studies in English included an apprenticeship with

Beat Generation The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-World War II era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by members o ...

poet

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with Lucien Carr, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of th ...

Naropa University Naropa University is a private university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1974 by Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa, it is named after the 11th-century Indian Buddhist sage Naropa, an abbot of Nalanda. The university ...

(formerly Naropa Institute) during the 1979–80 school year. He graduated cum laude from the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

in 1983 with a B.A. in English literature. In 1997, Rectenwald received a master's degree in English literature from

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a Private university, private research university in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1967 by a merger between Western Reserve University and the Case Institute of Technology. Case ...

. In 2004,

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

conferred upon Rectenwald a Ph.D. in literary and

cultural studies Cultural studies is an academic field that explores the dynamics of contemporary culture (including the politics of popular culture) and its social and historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers investigate how cultural practices rel ...

. In the span of one year, he published three books.

Career

Rectenwald was a Professor of Liberal and Global Liberal Studies at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

for more than ten years before retiring in January 2019. On September 12, 2016, Rectenwald created the anonymous Twitter account @antipcnyuprof, tweeting on the topic of

ideology on North American colleges and universities. A student reporter for the ''

Washington Square News ''Washington Square News (WSN)'' is the weekly student newspaper of New York University (NYU). It has a circulation of 10,000 and an estimated 55,000 online readers. It is published in print on Monday, in addition to online publication Tuesday th ...

,''

's weekly student newspaper, discovered him; he subsequently gave an interview revealing himself as the faculty member behind the account. At the time, he described his politics as “left-communist.” In a November 3, 2016 ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' op-ed, Rectenwald claimed that two days after the student interview, he was summoned by

NYU Liberal Studies Liberal Studies is a school in the Faculty of Arts and Science at the New York University. It houses the Liberal Studies Core Program and the Global Liberal Studies bachelor's degree program. Both of the department's programs employ a core curric ...

Dean Fred Schwarzbach and was "strongly encouraged to take a paid leave of absence." Schwarzbach denied Rectenwald's claims and posted all email correspondence between the two from November 1 through November 11, which showed Rectenwald requesting the leave himself. Rectenwald went on paid leave in September 2016. In January 2018, he sued NYU and four of its professors for defamation. The case was dismissed with prejudice against Rectenwald. In October 2018, Rectenwald invited Milo Yiannopoulos to speak in one of his classes. Yiannopoulos's visit was postponed for reasons of safety.

Research contributions

Rectenwald has written on the origins of the movement called

, which was founded in London in 1851 by

George Jacob Holyoake George Jacob Holyoake (13 April 1817 – 22 January 1906) was an English secularist, co-operator and newspaper editor. He coined the terms secularism in 1851 and " jingoism" in 1878. He edited a secularist paper, ''The Reasoner'', from 1846 to ...

. In "Secularism and the cultures of nineteenth-century scientific naturalism," Rectenwald argued that Holyoake's secularism "represents an important early stage of scientific naturalism". In Holyoake's ''Secularism'', Rectenwald locates a precursor for Charles Taylor’s version of secularity as the immanent frame that structures the conditions of belief and unbelief in

modernity Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period (the modern era) and the ensemble of particular Society, socio-Culture, cultural Norm (social), norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the ...

. According to a review in ''

Victorian Studies ''Victorian Studies'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Indiana University Press. It covers research on nineteenth-century Britain during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901) and publishes essays, forums, and reviews o ...

'', "Rectenwald thus offers a revisionist interpretation that, rather than understanding Holyoake's leadership of the free thought movement as a failed rhetorical attempt to make society more secular, sees it as marking a distinct moment in modernity."

Critique of social justice and leftism in academia

In 2018, the

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

New English Review Press published Rectenwald's memoir, ''Springtime for Snowflakes: Social Justice and Its Postmodern Parentage''. In the memoir, Rectenwald critiques the contemporary social justice culture in academia, arguing that it has promoted an authoritarian and

dogma Dogma, in its broadest sense, is any belief held definitively and without the possibility of reform. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Judaism, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, or Islam ...

tic culture in parts of academia.He was later dropped by the publisher.

2024 presidential campaign

In 2023, Rectenwald filed to run for president of the United States seeking the Libertarian presidential nomination in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. He finished second in delegate votes during the 2024 Libertarian National Convention, losing to Chase Oliver in the sixth round of elimination voting.

Works

Books

* Rectenwald, Michael, and Lisa Carl. ''Academic Writing, Real World Topics''. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press (May 28, 2015). * Rectenwald, Michael, Rochelle Almeida and George Levine, eds. ''Global Secularisms in a Post-Secular Age''. Boston: De Gruyter (September 25, 2015). * ''Nineteenth-Century British Secularism'': Science, Religion and Literature. Houndsmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK; New York: Palgrave Macmillan (2016). * Rectenwald, Michael and Lisa Carl. ''Academic Writing, Real World Topics''. (Concise Edition). Peterborough, Ont: Broadview Press (July 20, 2016). * ''Springtime for Snowflakes: Social Justice and Its Postmodern Parentage''. Nashville. TN; London, UK: New English Review Press (2018). * ''Google Archipelago'': ''The Digital Gulag and the Simulation of Freedom''. Nashville, TN; London, UK: New English Review Press. (September 30, 2019). * Rectenwald, Michael. ''Beyond Woke.'' New English Review Press. (May 18, 2020). * ''Thought Criminal.'' New English Review Press. (December 1, 2020). * ''The Great Reset.'' World Encounter Institute/New English Review Press (January 10, 2023).

Selected articles

* "Reading Around the Kids." In Constance Coiner and Diana Hume George, eds. ''The Family Track: Keeping Your Faculties while You Mentor, Nurture, Teach, and Serve''. University of Illinois Press, (1998): 107–13. * "Local Histories, Broader Implications." ''College Composition and Communication'' 60, no. 2 (2008): 448. * Smythe, Thomas W. and Michael Rectenwald. "Craig on God and Morality." ''International Philosophical Quarterly''. 51.3. 203 (September 2011): 331–38. * "Secularism." In Margaret Harris, ed. ''George Eliot in Context''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2013): 271–78. * "Secularism and the Cultures of Nineteenth-century Scientific Naturalism." ''The British Journal for the History of Science''. 46.2 (June 2013): 231–54. * "Mid-Nineteenth-Century British Secularism and its Contemporary Post-Secular Implications." In Michael Rectenwald, Rochelle Almeida and George Levine, eds. ''Global Secularisms in a Post- Secular Age''. Boston: De Gruyter (2015): 43–64. * "Introduction: Global Secularisms in a Post-Secular Age." In Michael Rectenwald, Rochelle Almeida and George Levine, eds. ''Global Secularisms in a Post- Secular Age''. Boston and Berlin: De Gruyter (2015): 1–24. * "Secularism as Modern Secularity." In Ryan T. Cragun, Lori Fazzino, Christel Manning, eds. ''Organized Secularism in the United States''. Boston and * * Berlin: De Gruyter (November 2017): 31–56. * "'Social Justice' and Its Postmodern Parentage." '' Academic Questions''. 31.2. (April 10, 2018): 130–139.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rectenwald, Michael 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American people of German descent Candidates in the 2024 United States presidential election Carnegie Mellon University alumni Case Western Reserve University alumni Living people New York University faculty North Carolina Central University faculty University of Pittsburgh alumni Writers from Pittsburgh Year of birth missing (living people)