Starting out as a literary critic in the early 1970s with his book Poetic Statement and Critical Dogma (1970), Gerald Graff has critiqued theories ranging from modern poetics and postmodern discourses to curricular reform. His study and research in curricular reform in the humanities resulted in Professing Literature: An Institutional History (1987), a book that marks Graff's career development from a pure theorist to an educational activist. With the publication of Beyond the Culture Wars: How Teaching the Conflicts Can Revitalize American Education (1992), he recommended solutions to the ideological, cultural, and political conflicts that beset teaching in the humanities at American institutions of higher education. He has addressed curriculum design in American higher education in many articles, and his concept of "teaching the conflicts" has been adopted as the theme of several academic conferences.

Graff suggests that students of humanities should be involved in the debate over various social issues...