Abram Van Engen
vanengen.bsky.social
Abram Van Engen
@vanengen.bsky.social
English professor at WashU in St. Louis. Co-host of podcast "Poetry For All." Author of "Word Made Fresh" and "City on a Hill." https://www.abramvanengen.com/
The Christian Backlash Taking Hold www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/o...
Opinion | The Christian Backlash Taking Hold
www.nytimes.com
July 11, 2025 at 11:12 PM
Reposted by Abram Van Engen
A longer-term proposal for how to stop attacks on higher education from @vanengen.bsky.social

"We must explain the benefits of our work—not just for those who attend college, but for all."

arcmag.org/the-lizard-t...
The Lizard Theory of Higher Ed | ARC: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera
Universities face an existential crisis. A huge portion of the American public no longer sees their point or purpose. As a result, when the government slashes NIH funding, or cancels $400 million of c...
arcmag.org
March 21, 2025 at 12:34 AM
The Chronicle of Higher Education featured the WashU English Department in a recent piece because of our rising major and overall growth. We're grateful, though we're not the only department with a rising major thankfully. Happy to join others in the good work. www.chronicle.com/article/how-...
Advice | How to Rescue Your Slumping Humanities Program
An English department reversed its enrollment slide and reinvigorated graduate training, too.
www.chronicle.com
February 12, 2025 at 2:31 AM
I wrote this piece about Christian nationalism several years ago. Sadly, it seems newly relevant all over again.
www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiou...
Os Guinness, Eric Metaxas, and Their Dangerous Myths of American History
The dangers of Christian nationalism for both Christianity and the nation mount with each rewriting of the American past.
www.patheos.com
February 6, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Reposted by Abram Van Engen
This email debacle is the highlight of my day 😍
omg a student somehow accidentally wrote an email addressed to a faculty-wide NYU listserv and my inbox is now a master class on who understands the difference between a listserv and an email chain
December 30, 2024 at 2:00 AM
Short piece I wrote about poetry and translation, and the power of Psalm 52 (about lying tyrants).

open.substack.com/pub/poetryfo...
Translation and Transference
Mary Sidney’s Psalm 52
open.substack.com
November 22, 2024 at 3:27 AM
Fun night tonight talking about how friendship shapes the work we do in the university. Not always a common topic, but so important.
November 20, 2024 at 3:46 AM
I’m here. On BlueSky. Hi.
November 17, 2024 at 11:36 PM