Trinity College Formal Organizations Department Hires Adam Kissel, Project 2025 Co-Author, as Visiting Lecturer

Savannah Brooks ’26

Editor-in-Chief

The beginning of the academic year on Sept. 2, 2025, brought the first classes taught at Trinity by a number of new faculty members. Among that staff is Adam Kissel, a current Visiting Fellow for Higher Education Reform at the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank whose mission is, according to their website, “[b]uilding an America where freedom, opportunity, prosperity, and civil society flourish.”

Kissel will serve as a Visiting Lecturer for the Formal Organizations (FOrg) department for the 2025-26 academic year. During the fall semester, he will teach two sections of FORG-310: “Theory and Philosophy of Markets,” which is described as a “reading-intensive and discussion-based” course that teaches “the potential importance, or pitfalls, of institutions, private property rights, and contracts for economic innovation.” To enroll in either section, students are required to email Edward Stringham, an Austrian-school economist who serves as the Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of American Business and Economic Enterprise and Director of the Shelby Cullom Davis Endowment, which funds FOrg. It is unclear if there are any prerequisites for joining either of Kissel’s courses. Stringham did not respond to a request for comment.

Kissel’s hiring, which was approved by The Office of the Dean of the Faculty, comes in the midst of a political firestorm surrounding higher education (Harvard University, most notably), in part due to the Trump administration’s efforts to curb diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs at any American educational institution. When approached for comment, The Office of the Dean of the Faculty told the Tripod in an email: “We don’t discuss personnel matters publicly, including faculty hiring. Academic hiring decisions are initiated by departments, follow a consistent process, and are premised on a strong commitment to academic freedom.” Kissel, as a part of his position at the Heritage Foundation, has been a strong voice supporting the Trump administration in its efforts to cut DEI programs.

In a Feb. 4, 2025 Heritage Foundation article co-authored with Mary Mobley, entitled “Anti-DEI Enforcement Is Coming for America’s Colleges,” Kissel asserts that “[f]ar too many American colleges and universities make violating civil rights laws part of their daily routine,” listing examples of these violations as “operating DEI offices” as well as “support[ing] discriminatory scholarship programs.” Kissel and Mobley end the article by stating that “[u]nder current law, violating civil rights can mean the end of all federal funding. We can expect the Trump administration to use this tool vigorously to incentivize change throughout the education sector. Unless they start cleaning house immediately, colleges have a lot to worry about.”

Kissel was also an architect of the higher education section of the Heritage Foundation’s 2025 Presidential Transition Project, better known as “Project 2025,” the right-wing plan to overhaul the federal government which is now inspiring Trump administration policies. In March of 2025, Kissel told a committee of Florida senators that he agreed with “probably everything” in Project’s 2025 education section, which includes a recommendation that Congress “wind down” “area studies programs,” which include, at Trinity, American Studies, Italian Studies, International Studies (which houses African Studies; Asian Studies; Caribbean and Latin American Studies; Middle East Studies; and Russian and Eurasian Studies) and Jewish Studies. 

Professor of Political Science Isaac Kamola, who co-authored “Free Speech and Koch Money: Manufacturing a Campus Culture War,” a book examining how the nationwide conservative donor network influences higher education, talked with the Tripod regarding Kissel’s hiring. Kamola stated, “I have colleagues in Texas who have been told they need to change course content because of SB 17, the bill that ended campus diversity and equity initiatives,” referring to a bill which was signed into law in 2024 in Texas, targeting institutions of higher education who practiced DEI. 

“Mr. Kissel lobbied for that bill,” Kamola continued. “I also have friends at George Mason, where Heritage Foundation members on the board are trying to fire the university president. However, for now, I’m happy to give Mr. Kissel the benefit of the doubt, and hope he is not here to provoke any of this culture war nonsense. The current right-wing attack on higher education is having a chilling effect. Faculty around the country are uncertain and fearful that they will become targets of ideologues seeking to delegitimize the important work we do as scholars and teachers. However, I know that Trinity faculty are also deeply committed to the mission of preparing students to ‘be bold, independent thinkers who lead transformative lives.’ Doing our work is more important now than ever before.” When approached for comment, Kissel told the Tripod over email: “I am excited to be a part of Trinity’s diverse, inclusive, and tolerant community. It was a pleasure to brainstorm with Trinity’s chief of staff on the College’s upcoming Constitution Day event,” referring to a conversation with Chief of Staff Jason Rojas in which Kissel reminded Rojas that federally-funded educational institutions are required to “hold an educational program on the United States Constitution on September 17 of such year for the students served by the educational institution,” according to PL 108-447, Div. J, Title I, section 111. Kissel additionally added that he was pleased “to speak with President Lugo on the first day of class. Formal Organizations is a terrific minor that all students should consider.”