Majoring in Anti-Americanism at the Ivy League

When William Pallan arrived at the University of Pennsylvania his freshman year, he was set on studying the humanities. He wanted to engage with the great thinkers of the Western canon, from Plato and Aristotle to Alexis de Tocqueville and John Stuart Mill. But as he searched through Penn’s online course catalog and sat in on classes, he felt that the options on offer focused less on the great texts themselves and more on postmodernist interpretations of them. He recalls leaving the first lecture in an English course on Shakespeare midway through when the professor said they’d be approaching the bard’s work through a queer lens.

“I chose to go to Penn, not Hillsdale, so I don’t expect to find a conservative professor in every classroom,” said Mr. Pallan, who will be a junior in the fall. “But it’s not just not a matter of their political affiliation. A lot of them are blatantly hostile to the Western and American tradition.” He decided to study math and economics. “At least I feel like I’m actually learning stuff that’s true.”