GSPP Faculty
David L. Kirp
In The News:
- 02/12/08: Authors@Google Forum
- 10/08/07: Interview with NBC11 News: The Bay Area Today
- 10/06/07: Interview with Channel 5 Eyewitness News At 7 AM
- 10/05/07: Expert Adamant That Preschool is Wise Investment
- 9/07: David Kirp Discusses Pre-K Movement with Richard Whitmire
- 6/14/0/07: Interview with ABC Radio National regarding his most recent book (html page) || Download Audio
- Professor Kirp's presentation for the 6th Annual Monan Lecture on Higher Education
- Interview with Professor Kirp regarding his book, Shakespeare, Einstein and the Bottom Line: The Marketing of Higher Education
Areas of Expertise/Interest:
- Early childhood
- Higher education
- Community
- Race and Ethnicity
- Ethics
- Law and Politics
Biographical Statement:
David L. Kirp is a professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. A former newspaper editor as well as an academic, his interests range widely across social policy. Throughout his career, he has written about the biggest issues of the day—gender, race, education, affirmative action, housing and AIDS among them--linking careful analysis with narratives that signify beyond their particulars. Much of his work addresses the question of justice, not as theory but in practice, as well as the contours of community.
As acting dean of the Goldman School in the late 1990s, and earlier as a trustee of Amherst College, his alma mater, he saw how colleges and universities are being run. Shakespeare, Einstein and the Bottom Line: The Marketing of Higher Education, published in 2003 by Harvard University Press, offers an engrossing account of the power of the market in shaping university ethos and policy. The book was praised in publications ranging from the New York Times and the New York Review of Books to the Journal of Policy and Management and the Review of Economic Literature. It received the 2005 “best book” award from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. A frequent guest on radio and television, he has delivered major addresses on higher education at organizations ranging from the Association of American Universities to TIAA-CREF, as well as at leading universities across the globe.
His latest book, The Sandbox Investment: ThePreschool Movement and Kids-First Politics, published in 2007 by Harvard University Press, won the 2007 Association of American Publishers Award for Excellence in the Education category and was named a San Francisco Chronicle notable book for 2007. Excerpts appeared in the New York Times Sunday Magazine and the Nation. Kirp has given numerous talks about early education at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton and Chicago, as well as statewide political and advocates’ gatherings, the Google Forum, the National Conference of State Legislators and the Education Writers of America. His current project, The Kids-First Agenda, expands the scope of his interest in the lives of children.
