Host Alex Usher speaks with James Waghorne, University Historian at the University of Melbourne and co-editor (with Ross Jones and Marcia Langton) of Dhoombak Goobgoowana, a two-volume work examining Indigenous Australia and the University of Melbourne. Waghorne discusses how the project approaches colonial history through case studies of race science, anthropology, and the harvesting of Indigenous human remains, situating the university within broader systems of Western scientific knowledge and settler colonialism. The conversation also explores the University of Melbourne’s reconciliation efforts, including Indigenous knowledge in the curriculum, collaborative research partnerships, Indigenous astronomy, and the challenges universities face in confronting their colonial pasts while reshaping higher education for the future.

👉 Episode Links:

• Dhoombak Goobgoowana: A History of Indigenous Australia and the University of Melbourne, edited by Ross L Jones, James Waghorne and Marcia Langton
• Focus Friday | May 8: Data Myth Busting | Register for free

Host Alex Usher speaks with Nicholas Dirks about the realities of university leadership amid financial pressures, political scrutiny, and growing institutional constraints. Drawing on his experience at Columbia and UC Berkeley, Dirks reflects on navigating crises around academic freedom and campus governance, and why meaningful reform in higher education is so difficult to achieve. The conversation also explores debates around institutional neutrality, interdisciplinarity, and what changes may be necessary for universities to adapt to an increasingly uncertain future.

👉 Episode Links:

• City of Intellect: The Uses and Abuses of the University
• Focus Friday

Host Alex Usher speaks with Daniel Collier and Michael Kofoed about the uncertain status and evolving role of the U.S. Department of Education under the Trump administration. They unpack why the department still exists despite efforts to dismantle it, and what that reveals about the limits of executive power.

The conversation explores key policy shifts around student aid, accreditation, and DEI, and how legally fragile or unclear directives are shaping institutional behaviour across higher education. They also examine major changes to student loan repayment, including the move to a new Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP), and what it means for borrowers.

Collier and Kofoed reflect on the risks of governing through executive action and how upcoming political shifts could reshape the future of federal higher education policy.

👉 Episode Links:

• “A New Attitude: Why McMahon Isn’t DeVos 2.0” (Inside Higher Ed) by Daniel Collier
• Focus Friday: Online & Distance Learning (April 17) | Register for free