Handling the Stigma of Handling Dark Money

• In Event: The Role of Education in Shaping Contemporary Political Divides

Abstract

This paper explores how libertarian scholars manage the moral pollution attributed to donations earmarked for the promotion of individual liberty and free markets on American college campuses. Our data are derived primarily from 46 semi-structured interviews with professors and graduate students in the social sciences and humanities connected to the Charles Koch Foundation (CKF) and other academically oriented libertarian-leaning organizations. We first show that our respondents use the discursive moves of recalibrating, refocusing, and reframing stigma, along with condemning their condemners, to reassert a positive social identity. Second, we argue that it is through participation in what we call the academic libertarian network that a sense of social solidarity and a shared community of meaning is developed among libertarian scholars, which bolsters our respondents’ ability to manage stigma and galvanizes our respondents in defense of CKF and similar entities. Our analysis offers important insights for social scientists and activists trying to understand the role of politically motivated donations in higher education today.

Authors

• Jeffrey L Kidder, Northern Illinois University

• Amy Binder, Johns Hopkins University