Associated Products
The Limits of the Numerical (Book)Title: The Limits of the Numerical
Editor: Stephen John
Editor: Christopher Newfield
Editor: Anna Alexandrova
Abstract: 10 chapters explore the impacts of the numerical on qualitative understandings of health care, climate change, and higher education. The chapters are organized under four headings: I. Expert Sources of the Revolt Against Experts; II. Can narrative fix numbers?; III. When bad numbers have good social effects; IV. The Uses of the Numerical for Qualitative Ends
Year: 2022
Access Model: book for purchase
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Type: Edited Volume
ISBN: N/A
Copy sent to NEH?: No
Metrics that Matter? Student Life in the Quantified University (Book)Title: Metrics that Matter? Student Life in the Quantified University
Author: Zachary Bleemer
Author: Mukul Kumar
Author: Aashish Mehta
Author: Christopher Muellerleile
Author: Christopher Newfield
Abstract: This book explores the indicators that shape a typical student's approach to, life in, and life after college. It walks readers through the following standard metrics:
1. Return on Investment
2. University Rankings
3. Selectivity
4. Tuition Sticker Prices
5. Student Debt
6. Average Wages by College Major
7. Access to My Preferred Major
In each case, the authors either replace the faulty standard metric with a better one, or propose a non-metric substitute. As a result, the reader will have a better idea of how to think about attending college.
Year: 2022
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Type: Multi-author monograph
ISBN: N/A
Copy sent to NEH?: No
Introduction (Book Section)Title: Introduction
Author: Christopher Newfield
Author: Stephen John
Author: Anna Alexandrova
Abstract: Introduction to the edited volume, Limits of the Numerical, that explains the genesis of the product, standard interpretations of quantification's effects, and where our general perspective differs in outcomes.
Year: 2022
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Book Title: The Limits of the Numerical
The Role of the Numerical in the Decline of Expertise (Book Section)Title: The Role of the Numerical in the Decline of Expertise
Author: Christopher Newfield
Abstract: Popular suspicion of expertise can be traced in part to a generally overlooked source: the tendency of experts to use quantified data to tell the public that worse conditions for them are inevitable and irreversible. Experts will regain some respect if they link quantification to the increase rather than the decrease of democratic agency.
Year: 2022
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Book Title: The Limits of the Numerical
ISBN: N/A
The Purposes and Provisioning of Higher Education: Can economics and humanities perspectives be reconciled? (Book Section)Title: The Purposes and Provisioning of Higher Education: Can economics and humanities perspectives be reconciled?
Author: Aashish Mehta
Author: Christopher Newfield
Abstract: Over the years, scholars in the humanities disciplines and scholars in economics have said little to each other about the point of graduating from university or about how to pay for it. This is not surprising. The lack of scholarly communication across these particular disciplinary lines extends to many other areas of public policy. Economists’ general preference for parsimonious explanations of human behavior, and for axiomatic answers to normative questions are about as far removed as one can get from the interest of humanities scholars in individual variety and psychological depth, and from humanities scholars’ insistence on historically and culturally contextualized approaches to the normative. This paper bridges the gap, describes the lineages of both humanistic and economic understandings of the value of college, and identifies major overlaps around the non-pecuniary and public benefits of a college degree
Year: 2022
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Book Title: The Limits of the Numerical
ISBN: N/A
Only Free College Can Save Us From This Crisis (Article)Title: Only Free College Can Save Us From This Crisis
Author: Christopher Newfield
Abstract: While free college is considered by many to be a self-indulgent and unaffordable concept, it is in fact both affordable and necessary to maintain both enrollments and public benefits. The article explains why.
Year: 2020
Primary URL:
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Only-Free-College-Can-Save-Us/248468Format: Newspaper
Periodical Title: The Chronicle of Higher Education
Publisher: Chronicle of Higher Education
The Trouble with Numerical Culture (Article)Title: The Trouble with Numerical Culture
Author: Christopher Newfield
Abstract: Identifies four flaws in numerical culture that are hurting the humanities, and offers remedies that will allow the nondestructive use of quantitative data.
Year: 2019
Primary URL:
https://profession.mla.org/the-trouble-with-numerical-culture/Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Profession Magazine
Publisher: Profession Magazine
Review of Jerry Z. Muller, The Tyranny of Metrics (Article)Title: Review of Jerry Z. Muller, The Tyranny of Metrics
Author: Christopher Newfield
Abstract: This book is arguably the best recent survey of the uses of quantified data in a range of domains. It argues that metrics only work when they are used internally in a community of peers.
Year: 2019
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: British Journal of Sociology
Publisher: British Journal of Sociology
Metrics Noir (Article)Title: Metrics Noir
Author: Christopher Newfield
Author: Heather Steffen
Abstract: Reviews several books about metrics to identify benefits and problems posed by the power of quantification in people's lives
Year: 2017
Primary URL:
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/remaking-the-university-metrics-noir/Format: Magazine
Periodical Title: Los Angeles Review of Books
Publisher: Los Angeles Review of Books
Metrics in the Humanities (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Metrics in the Humanities
Author: Christopher Newfield
Abstract: How humanities scholars use of citation analysis barely exists, and other differences that bibliometrics providers should consider
Date: 12/2/20
Conference Name: Conference of the International Center for the Study of Research, Elsevier
The Trouble with Numerical Culture (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: The Trouble with Numerical Culture
Author: Christopher Newfield
Abstract: Identifies four problems with the standard use of indicators in contemporary academia
Date: 5/16/20
Conference Name: Disquantified, UC Santa Barbara
Introduction to Disquantified Conference (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Introduction to Disquantified Conference
Author: Christopher Newfield
Abstract: an overview of the NEH project and how it led to the program the attendees saw before them.
Date: 5/16/19
Conference Name: Disquantified, UC Santa Barbara
What the Humanities are For: Two Reponses to Vulnerability (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: What the Humanities are For: Two Reponses to Vulnerability
Author: Christopher Newfield
Abstract: discusses the humanties's capacity to build futures that are not controlled either by technological developments or numerical indicators
Date: 2/7/19
Conference Name: invited lecture, Society for the Humanities, Cornell University
Academic Analytics and/as the Crisis in Expertise (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Academic Analytics and/as the Crisis in Expertise
Author: Laura Mandell
Abstract: compares humanties-based peer review to the citation-based product developed by Academic Analytics
Date: 5/17/19
Conference Name: Disquantified, UC Santa Barbara
Language and the Limits of the Numerical (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Language and the Limits of the Numerical
Author: Christopher Newfield
Abstract: Identifies four flaws in indicator use in relation to the humanities
Date: 1/4/19
Conference Name: Modern Languages Association convention
Using Faulty Metrics: A Proposal for Self-Denial (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Using Faulty Metrics: A Proposal for Self-Denial
Author: Christopher Newfield
Abstract: Validty should control use of metrics, not convenience or managerial imperatives
Date: 7/17/18
Conference Name: Limits of the Numerical Workshop, University of Cambridge
The Purposes and Provisioning of Higher Education: Tracing, Contrasting and Reconciling Humanities and Economic Perspectives (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: The Purposes and Provisioning of Higher Education: Tracing, Contrasting and Reconciling Humanities and Economic Perspectives
Author: Aashish Mehta
Author: Christopher Newfield
Abstract: reconcilation of economics and humanities approaches to the value of college
Date: 07/17/18
Conference Name: Limits of the Numerical Workshop, University of Cambridge
The Role of the Numerical in the Decline of Expertise (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: The Role of the Numerical in the Decline of Expertise
Author: Christopher Newfield
Abstract: when expertise use quantified data to override democratic deliberation, they undermine the status of expertise with the public
Date: 6/27/18
Conference Name: Limits of the Numerical Workshop, University of Cambridge,
Equality of Learning Opportunity at a Public University: New Measures of Something that Really Matters (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Equality of Learning Opportunity at a Public University: New Measures of Something that Really Matters
Author: Aashish Mehta
Abstract: the focus on learning assessment may distract us from an even more important determinant of learning outcomes: funding variability by major. This paper presents evidence that these variations affect learning in less affluent departments.
Date: 5/17/19
Conference Name: Disquantified, UC Santa Barbara
Must a Metric be Junk to be Used? Or, How (Not) to Embrace Info Monopolies (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Must a Metric be Junk to be Used? Or, How (Not) to Embrace Info Monopolies
Author: Christopher Newfield
Abstract: metrics that are simplified generally distort reality, and yet simplified metrics are more likely to be used. How can scholars face this issue?
Date: 6/27/18
Conference Name: Open Access Conference, Coventry University, UK
Selectivity Metrics (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Selectivity Metrics
Author: Christopher Newfield
Abstract: admissions selectivity is arguably the single most important numerical indicator of prestige for the US public. It should be replaced by per-student investment as a metric of educational quality.
Date: 6/7/18
Conference Name: Limits of the Numerical Workshop, UC Humanities Research Institute
Will Studying Economics Make You Rich? A Regression Discontinuity Analysis of the Returns to College Major (Article)Title: Will Studying Economics Make You Rich? A Regression Discontinuity Analysis of the Returns to College Major
Author: Zachary Bleemer
Author: Aashish Mehta
Abstract: We investigate the wage return to studying economics by leveraging a policy that prevented students with low introductory grades from declaring the major. Students who barely met the GPA threshold to major in economics earned $22,000 (46%) higher annual early-career wages than they would have with their second-choice majors. Access to the economics major shifts students' preferences toward business/finance careers, and about half of the wage return is explained by economics majors working in higher-paying industries. The causal return to majoring in economics is very similar to observational earnings differences in nationally representative data.
Year: 2021
Primary URL:
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.20200447Format: Journal
Publisher: Applied Economics
Wage-by-Major Statistics: Transparency to What End? (Article)Title: Wage-by-Major Statistics: Transparency to What End?
Author: Zachary Bleemer
Abstract: wages-by-major data not only ignores non-pecuniary benefits of college but have such significant technical problems that they should in general not be used.
Year: 2019
Primary URL:
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/just-visiting/guest-post-wage-major-statistics-transparency-what-endFormat: Newspaper
Periodical Title: Inside Higher Education
Publisher: Inside Higher Education