This morning we were thrilled to open the New York Times to see NAS president Peter Wood's name in David Brooks' column "The 2015 Sidney Awards, Part 2." Brooks offers a roundup of essays from the year that he recommends readers peruse during their leisure time over the holidays. Among his recommendations is Peter's May 4, 2015 Weekly Standard cover story on the long-term harms of the hook-up culture.
Brooks writes:
Subtly communities can fall apart. There were many fine pieces this year about sex on campus. One factor is that old community norms governing decent behavior have fallen away and new ones have not yet come into being. Writing “The Meaning of Sex” in The Weekly Standard, the anthropologist Peter Wood describes the damage done when natural and social constructs like virginity, fatherhood, intimacy and romance are done away with or watered down. The result can be a sort of high-class savagery leading to brutal pain and victimization.
We are delighted to see Peter's excellent article receiving fresh attention and new readers.
The Sidney Awards are named for Sidney Hook, the American philosopher in whose name the National Association of Scholars also offers an award at our national conference, to an individual who has made distinguished contributions to the defense of academic freedom and the integrity of academic life.