• “Good People: The New Discipline,” Liberties, summer 2023.
• “Students, Meet the Super-Ego,” Inside Higher Ed, May 10, 2023.
• “How Capitalism Went Progressive,” Salmagundi. Spring Summer 2023.
• “Grief and Grievances: The Example of T.S. Eliot,” Literary Matters, 15:3.
• “Truth Takes a Vacation: Trumpism and the American Philosophical Tradition," Harper’s Magazine, January 2023.
• “The Super-Ego in the Green World,” Salmagundi, Spring / Summer 2022.
• “What Emerson Can Teach Us About Resilience,” Wall Street Journal, June 18, 2021.
• “What Walt Whitman Knew about Democracy,” Wall Street Journal, April 15, 2021.        
• “On Great Literary Loves,” Lithub, April 9, 2021.  
• "Jam Songs: Ideology and Education," Salmagundi. Spring-Summer 2020. 
• “Walt Whitman’s Guide to a Thriving Democracy,” The Atlantic Monthly, May 2019.
• “Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?” Los Angeles Review of Books, Sept. 9. 2018.
• “Can Drugs Enlighten?” Raritan, Fall 2018.
• “Coleridge!” Literary Imagination, July, 2018.
• “A Left Conservative,” Salmagundi, Fall 2018.
• “Exploring College Students’ Quest for Identity,” Inside Higher Ed, February 20, 2018.
• “The Metaphysics of the Hangover,” Hedgehog Review, Summer 2017.
• "My Perfect Season": Harper's Magazine, July 2016.
• "Profanity as Weltanschauung": Los Angeles Review of Books, December 29, 2015.
• "Test of Faith": American Scholar, Fall 2015.
• "If Everything's So Amazing, Why's Nobody Happy?": VQR on-line, October 5, 2015.
• "The Idealist versus the Therapist": New York Times, August 18, 2015.
• "Football: The Lure of the Game": The Los Angeles Review of Books, Sept. 8, 2014.
• "A Paint Factory Education": Virginia Quarterly Review, Fall 2014.
• "The Gift" (fiction): Raritan, Fall 2014.
• "Pay Attention": The Hedgehog Review, Summer 2014.
• "Poetry Slam: The Decline of American Verse": Harper's Magazine, September 2013.
• "Imagination: Powers and Perils": Raritan, Fall 2012.
• "Do Sports Build Character or Destroy It?": The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 15, 2012.
• "Under the Sign of Satan: Blake in the Corporate University": The Hedgehog Review, Spring 2012.
• "Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here? / A Message in a Bottle for the Incoming Class": Oxford American, Fall 2011. Chosen for Best American Essays 2012.
• “Dwelling in Possibility”: The Chronicle of Higher Education (cover story), March 21, 2008.
• “Alone at the Movies”: The American Scholar, Winter, 2008.
• “The Zen Ten,” in University of Virginia Teaching Resource Center Bulletin, Fall, 2005.
• “Humanities Past, Present and Future”: New Literary History, Winter 2005.
• “Freud (and Shakespeare) in Love”: Raritan, Summer 2004.
• "My First Intellectual": Lingua Franca, March, 1999.
• "The Uses of a Liberal Arts Education": Harper's Magazine, September, 1997.
• "Novel Characters: Don DeLillo Rewrites the Self": Yale Review, April, 1995.
• "Coleridge" in The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism (Johns Hopkins University Press,1993).
• "Vital Intimations: Wordsworth and the Promise of Criticism": SAQ, Summer, 1992.
• "Criticism Now: the Example of Wordsworth": Raritan, Fall, 1990.
• "Salman Rushdie: Prophet of a New Post-Modernism": Harper's Magazine, September, 1989.
• "A Will to Cultural Power: Deconstructing the De Man Scandal": Harper's Magazine, July 1988.
• "Keats's Mortal Stance": Studies in Romanticism, Spring 1987.
• "Edmund Wilson: The Last American Scholar?": The Bennington Review, No. 12, Winter 1982.

Selected Recent Lectures

• “Students, Beware the Super-Ego”: Lincoln Lecture, American University, September 28, 2023.
• “The Fight for Democracy”: Boi Distinguished Lecture, University of North Bengal, India, August 20, 2022.
• “Whitman’s Democracy”: Catholic University, Feb 16, 2022
• “Walt Whitman, Poet of Democracy”: UVA Democracy Initiative, Feb 12, 2022.
• "Walt Whitman Invents America”: Philadelphia Atheneum, May, 2021.
• "The Humanities in the Age of STEM”: Wayne State University, April 12, 2019.
• Illume / Knapp Lectures on Walt Whitman, University of San Diego:
  • "Who Was Walt Whitman?" October 7, 2019.
  • "The Great Work: Song of Myself”: October 9, 2019.
  • "The Hospitals and Beyond”: October 11, 2019.
• "In Defense of Ideals”: Tocqueville Lecture, Furman University, January 31, 2019.
• "Why Write?": Western Michigan University, September 28, 2017.
• "Violence in Charlottesville": Western Michigan University, September 28, 2017.
• "In Defense of Ideals": Western Michigan University, September 28, 2017.
• "Freud and the Future," a discussion: 92nd Street Y, New York City, March 22, 2016.
• "The Life of the Ideal": King College, September 14, 2015.
• "Real Life or Ideal Life?": Mary Washington College, August 26, 2015.
• "Attention and Distraction Now": New York University, May 14, 2015.
• "Why Football Matters": Lowell lecture, Boston College, October 15, 2014.
• "The Soul of the Humanities": Phi Beta Kappa Lecture, University of Alabama, September 4, 2014.
• "The Soul of the Humanities": Amherst College, April 16, 2014.
• "The Soul of the Humanities": Ohio State University, March 26, 2014.
• "Self and Soul": Cloud Lecture, William and Mary College, March 19, 2014.
• “Terrible Beauty: Football in America”: Princeton University, McCandless Lecture, December 11, 2012.
• “Self and Soul: The Mortal Dilemma”: Houston Lecture, University of Houston, April 19, 2012.
• “What Is a Romantic?” Department of English, University of Houston, April 18, 2012.
• “Self and Soul: The Mortal Dilemma”: Knoll Lecture, University of Nebraska, Lincoln; March 27, 2012.
• Scholar in Residence / Monterey Bay Community College / presenting three lectures:
  “Are Football Stars Heroes?”  March 8, 2012.
  “Can Music Save Your Life?” March 7, 2012.
  “Why Does Love Have to Be So Sad?” March 5, 2012.
• “Why Read?” Suffolk University: October 6, 2011 (Teacher chosen as first year reading for entering class).
• “Why Read?”  Wartburg College (Convocation Address) – March 22, 2011.
• “Self and Soul: The Modern Dilemma,” Portland State University (Keynote Address, NUCLA Conference), March 4, 2011.
• Kings of Rock and Roll! Princeton University (Association of Literary Scholars, Critics and Writers Conference), November 6, 2010.
• “The Common Reader Now,” Princeton University  (ALSCW Conference), November 5, 2010.
• “Why Read?” Simpson College (Convocation Address), September 5, 2010.

Editor

• Contributing Editor, Raritan, 1991-