Dean's Dialogue - Trust in Higher Education

Join Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis in conversation with Professors Julia Adams (Sociology) and Beverly Gage (History), co-chairs of Yale’s Committee on Trust in Higher Education. In response to the erosion of confidence in colleges and universities nationwide, the committee seeks to better understand public perception, and ultimately to envision ways of strengthening trust in higher education.  

This is a space for members of the Yale community to engage with the co-chairs in conversation about trust in higher education, including on the Yale campus. 

Meet the Host: 

Pericles Lewis, Douglas Tracy Smith Professor of Comparative Literature and Professor of English at Yale University, serves as Dean of Yale College. In partnership with other university leaders and faculty members, he is responsible for guiding the curriculum, intellectual life, residential experience, and student affairs of the Yale College community. His goal is to ensure that Yale offers the world’s best undergraduate education. LEARN MORE and follow on INSTAGRAM @yalecollegedean

Meet the Guests: 

Julia Adams, Margaret H. Marshall Professor of Sociology. Julia Adams teaches and conducts research in the areas of states and empires; social theory and knowledge; family, sex and gender, and early modern European politics. Her current work focuses on patrimonial politics in world history, and the representation of academic knowledge on Wikipedia and other digital platforms. LEARN MORE

Beverly Gage, the John Lewis Gaddis Professor of History, teaches courses on 20th-century U.S. politics, government, and social movements. In 2026, she will publish This Land is Your Land: A Road Trip through U.S. History, a journey through the American past to mark the nation’s 250th birthday (or semiquincentennial). Her 2022 book, G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century, received the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the L.A. Times Book Prize, among other honors. This semester, she is co-teaching America at 250: A History, a one-time lecture course open to Yale students as well as area community members. She is currently at work on a biography of Ronald Reagan. LEARN MORE

"The Dean’s Dialogue series models respectful, curious, and candid conversation about difficult topics." READ A space for dialogue: Yale series models civil discussion on hard topics in Yale News.