Steven Mintz

New York, San Luis Obispo

Professor, University of Texas at Austin and Journalist at Freelance

Journalist and author attuned to orporate management, investment strategy and public policy.

Articles

The Arts Should Become More Central to College

3 weeks ago | insidehighered.com | Steven Mintz

You have /5 articles left. Sign up for a free account or log in. For Friedrich Nietzsche, the arts are far more than entertainment; they are essential to human flourishing. In works like The Birth of Tragedy and Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche emphasizes the transformative and life-affirming power of the arts. The arts, according to Nietzsche, enable people to face the tragic aspects of existence while discovering beauty and meaning within them.
Emotional Intelligence as New Metric for Educational Success

3 weeks ago | insidehighered.com | Steven Mintz

You have /5 articles left. Sign up for a free account or log in. Enter a school of education today and you’re likely to hear a phrase like this: “IQ is good, but EQ [emotional intelligence] is essential.” This reflects a profound shift in how we think about education and human potential. Emotional intelligence, once a niche concept within psychology, has become a cornerstone of modern pedagogy, seen as indispensable for preparing students to navigate the complexities of 21st-century life.
The Story of Boeing's Failed Corporate Culture

3 weeks ago | cpajournal.com | Steven Mintz |William Miller

Featured, March/April 2025, Feature Articles, Ethics | The Boeing case is a cautionary tale of what can go wrong when a company fails to develop and implement sound internal quality controls that protect operational processes and encourage a culture of safety. At Boeing, whistleblowers reported problems with operating processes that were ignored by management and weren’t always reported to the board of directors.
Designing Core Texts Courses for Today’s Students

1 month ago | insidehighered.com | Steven Mintz

May 22, 2025 Strategies for designing core texts courses for today’s students. You have /5 articles left. Sign up for a free account or log in. What do The Odyssey, Beloved and The Communist Manifesto have in common? At first glance, very little—but when placed together in a Great Books course, they become part of a larger conversation about power, identity and the search for a meaningful life.
Making Theater a Core Academic Experience

1 month ago | insidehighered.com | Steven Mintz

You have /5 articles left. Sign up for a free account or log in. The 2024 Broadway play The Hills of California interweaves two deeply resonant archetypal stories: daughters grappling with the emotional complexities surrounding their mother’s imminent death and their memories of growing up in the shadow of a widowed mother’s unmet dreams.
The Academy as a Lens for Understanding the Human Condition

1 month ago | insidehighered.com | Steven Mintz

May 15, 2025 The academy as a lens for understanding the human condition. You have /5 articles left. Sign up for a free account or log in. While academic writing and Elizabethan verse may seem worlds apart, Shakespeare’s ability to engage, persuade and clarify complex ideas holds valuable insights for scholars striving to communicate effectively.
What Higher Education Can Learn From a Film Program

1 month ago | insidehighered.com | Steven Mintz

May 13, 2025 What higher education can learn from a film program. You have /5 articles left. Sign up for a free account or log in. The other night, I had an eye-opening experience watching a cousin, a filmmaker and professor, work frame by frame with an undergraduate editing a TV pilot. The level of precision, focus and real-world application was striking—a sharp contrast to what most of us in academia do.
Choice, culture and commitment in learning, part two

1 month ago | insidehighered.com | Steven Mintz

You have /5 articles left. Sign up for a free account or log in. As I explored in part 1, the implications of Michael Godsey’s article for higher education are profound, particularly in the way it highlights disparities in student motivation, engagement and academic culture between different types of institutions.
Choice, Culture and Commitment in Learning

1 month ago | insidehighered.com | Steven Mintz

You have /5 articles left. Sign up for a free account or log in. I come from a family of public school teachers. My mother taught, as did her sister. So did one of my sisters and one of my sons. I believe deeply in the mission of public education, which is why a recent essay by The Atlantic’s Michael Godsey, “Why I’m a Public-School Teacher but a Private-School Parent,” unsettles me.
Teaching Writing in the Age of AI

1 month ago | insidehighered.com | Steven Mintz

You have /5 articles left. Sign up for a free account or log in. As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly capable of generating polished, grammatically correct text that meets academic standards, educators face a critical challenge: How can we teach students to write authentically and effectively? Many of my students don’t see the value of academic writing, particularly when AI can produce passable essays in seconds.