{"id":2120,"date":"2026-10-01T14:02:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T14:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/?post_type=showcase&#038;p=2120"},"modified":"2026-10-01T14:47:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T14:47:13","slug":"season-6-episode-4-conservatism-on-college-campuses-a-conversation-with-lauren-lassabe-shepherd-and-sophie-wunderlich","status":"publish","type":"showcase","link":"https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/showcase\/season-6-episode-4-conservatism-on-college-campuses-a-conversation-with-lauren-lassabe-shepherd-and-sophie-wunderlich\/","title":{"rendered":"Season 6, Episode 4: Conservatism on College Campuses: A Conversation with Lauren Lassabe-Shepherd and Sophie Wunderlich"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div style=\"height:12px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-white-color has-text-color has-background has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"background-color:#4d4d4e\">In this episode of <em>Reverb Effect<\/em>, Lauren Lassabe-Shepherd and Sophie Wunderlich look at the long history of conservative student activism on American college campuses. The popular image of the 1960s student is a protester against the Vietnam War or for civil rights. That same decade also saw the rise of right-wing student groups like Young Americans for Freedom and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. We explore how national leaders and donors built these groups, what they called grassroots organizing, and how they copied the tactics of the left. We also follow the students who later became prominent figures in the Republican Party, the courts, and conservative media, and trace the right&#8217;s century-long fight with higher education up to today&#8217;s campus culture wars.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1800\" src=\"https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/AG8C8671.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2116\" srcset=\"https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/AG8C8671.jpg 1800w, https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/AG8C8671-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/AG8C8671-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/AG8C8671-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/AG8C8671-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/AG8C8671-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/AG8C8671-1568x1568.jpg 1568w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Photo by Joseph W. Ho<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-spotify wp-block-embed-spotify wp-embed-aspect-21-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: Season 6, Episode 4: Conservatism on College Campuses: A Conversation with Lauren Lassabe-Shepherd and Sophie Wunderlich\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"100%\" height=\"152\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/episode\/5qCiOhyedkkBjqRwSJZDdP?utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-3e41869c wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div style=\"--wp--block-button--width: 25;\" class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width wp-block-button__width-25\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/season-6-episode-4-conservatism-on-college-campuses\/id1486434428?i=1000792577997\">Apple Podcasts<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"--wp--block-button--width: 25;\" class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width wp-block-button__width-25\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/episode\/5qCiOhyedkkBjqRwSJZDdP\">Spotify<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In this episode of <em>Reverb Effect<\/em>, we look at the long history of conservative student activism on American college campuses. The popular image of the 1960s student is a protester against the Vietnam War or for civil rights. That same decade also saw the rise of right-wing student groups like Young Americans for Freedom and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. We explore how national leaders and donors built these groups, what they called grassroots organizing, and how they copied the tactics of the left. We also follow the students who later became prominent figures in the Republican Party, the courts, and conservative media, and trace the right&#8217;s century-long fight with higher education up to today&#8217;s campus culture wars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Lauren Lassabe-Shepherd <\/strong>is a historian of American colleges and universities and a community scholar affiliate of Indiana University and the Society for US Intellectual History. She is the author of&nbsp;<em>Resistance from the Right: Conservatives and the Campus Wars in Modern America<\/em> (University of North Carolina Press, 2023). <strong>Sophie Wunderlich<\/strong> received her PhD in History in 2025 and is now a postdoctoral fellow in the Division of the Senior Historian at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/showcase\/season-6-episode-4-transcript\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>View the full episode transcript<\/strong>.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"production-credits\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Production Credits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Episode Producers:\u00a0<\/strong>Sophie Wunderlich<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Season Producer:<\/strong>&nbsp;Cheyenne Pettit<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Executive Producer:<\/strong>&nbsp;Joseph W. Ho<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Editorial Board: <\/strong>Joseph W. Ho, Kenneth Mills, Gregory Parker<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Music:<\/strong> Eguana, &#8220;Wind In Wheat Fields&#8221; (Endless Quest Media)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Share your thoughts about&nbsp;<em>Reverb Effect<\/em>&nbsp;by messaging&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:reverb.effect@umich.edu\">reverb.effect@umich.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u00a9 2026 Regents of the University of Michigan<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this episode of Reverb Effect, Lauren Lassabe-Shepherd and Sophie Wunderlich look at the long history of conservative student activism on American college campuses. The popular image of the 1960s student is a protester against the Vietnam War or for civil rights. That same decade also saw the rise of right-wing student groups like Young Americans for Freedom and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. We explore how national leaders and donors built these groups, what they called grassroots organizing, and how they copied the tactics of the left. We also follow the students who later became prominent figures in the Republican Party, the courts, and conservative media, and trace the right&#8217;s century-long fight with higher education up to today&#8217;s campus culture wars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2116,"template":"","format":[51],"categories":[98,44,520],"tags":[],"contributor":[522,510,530,440],"authors":[],"department_or_unit":[5],"funding_sources":[66],"project_date":[527],"support_partners":[],"class_list":["post-2120","showcase","type-showcase","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-homepage-showcase","category-reverb-effect","category-season-6","contributor-cheyenne-pettit","contributor-joseph-w-ho","contributor-lauren-lassabe-shepherd","contributor-sophie-wunderlich","department_or_unit-history","format-podcast","funding_sources-department-of-history","project_date-527","entry"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/AG8C8671.jpg",1800,1800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/AG8C8671-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/AG8C8671-300x300.jpg",300,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/AG8C8671-768x768.jpg",768,768,true],"large":["https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/AG8C8671-1024x1024.jpg",1000,1000,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/AG8C8671-1536x1536.jpg",1536,1536,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/AG8C8671.jpg",1800,1800,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/AG8C8671-1568x1568.jpg",1568,1568,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"jwho","author_link":"https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/author\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"In this episode of Reverb Effect, Lauren Lassabe-Shepherd and Sophie Wunderlich look at the long history of conservative student activism on American college campuses. The popular image of the 1960s student is a protester against the Vietnam War or for civil rights. 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