New College of Florida to offer class on “wokeness”

New College of Florida will offer an independent study course on “wokeness” next January, featuring readings from NCF trustee and anti–diversity, equity and inclusion activist Chris Rufo and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, The Tampa Bay Times reported.

The one-month course, reportedly titled The ‘Woke’ Movement, will be taught by Andrew Doyle, a British satirist and playwright and a presidential scholar in residence at New College. It will include readings by Ibram X. Kendi, who founded the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research, and Robin DiAngelo, a professor at the University of Washington who has written about race. Conservatives have criticized both Kendi and DiAngelo for their writings. 

New College faculty told the newspaper that the course caught them by surprise.

It is being introduced in the midst of a conservative overhaul of the small college, driven by Republican governor Ron DeSantis, who appointed a new board majority in early 2023 that quickly pushed out the president and replaced her with former GOP lawmaker Richard Corcoran. NCF has since filled the staff and faculty ranks with a mix of people from outside academe, as well as scholars who have faced controversy elsewhere for their conservative stances.

In addition to the course on wokeness, faculty members have criticized NCF’s administration for making sweeping changes to the broader curriculum, including revising general education courses in a process they have alleged is ideologically driven.