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Sam Thau @samthau.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Students consistently preferred somewhat more political courses. Preferences over slant changed over time: demand for liberal content rose through the 2010s, peaked around 2020, and has partially reversed since. (11/N)

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Sam Thau @samthau.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

After moving, instructors close roughly 35–40% of the gap between the political content of their old and new institutions. The remaining 60–65% persists with the instructor, suggesting instructor-specific factors account for most of the cross-sectional variation. (9/N)

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Sam Thau @samthau.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Within the same institution and field, courses have become about 0.15 SD more political and 0.13 SD more liberal since 2000. The changes are broad-based, but modest relative to the much larger persistent differences across fields today (7/N)

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Sam Thau @samthau.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Most courses contain little political content or slant, but fields differ sharply. Math is overwhelmingly apolitical; Ethnic/Cultural Studies contains much more liberal content; and Law has a notable conservative tail. (6/N)

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Sam Thau @samthau.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

In a new @siepr.bsky.social WP, @gideonmoore.bsky.social, @jdlight.bsky.social and I document a small but broad shift towards more political, more liberal courses across nearly 1,000 US colleges 2000-present. We then study how students + faculty shape political content. A thread (1/N)...

$Abstract: We measure two dimensions of politics in college courses --- the amount of political content and its partisan orientation --- using course descriptions from nearly 1,000 U.S. colleges and universities over the past 25 years. Using a novel text-as-data method, we separate the amount of ``political content,'' the extent to which a course engages with topics salient to politics and public policy, from ``slant,'' the partisan direction of that content. Since 2000, the average course has 0.15 SD more political content and 0.13 SD more liberal slant. Changes are most pronounced in the tails of the distribution, particularly for slant, and are modest relative to persistent cross-field differences. Following instructors who move between institutions, we find that instructors account for 60-65\% of cross-sectional differences in course political content and slant. Using enrollment data, we find students show no preference for liberal content before the 2010s; demand for liberal content rises over the following decade, peaks in 2020, and falls slightly thereafter.$

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