Criticized Iowa Professor Tells Chronicle: I'll Be Back

In no doubt a dastardly move to crack open the education journal subscriber market, the Chronicle of Higher Education is featuring an article this month on the never-ending Stephen Bloom saga.

The journalism professor was the target of an intense fire storm of criticism (and some praise) after his critical Iowa Caucus article was published online in the . The piece criticized Iowa's pivotal role in selecting our nation's president. Bloom argued Iowa is non-representative, rural, and decaying.

Still, despite the fact that everyone and their mother commented on the article, with some calling for the University of Iowa to fire Bloom for his opinion piece (a silly idea, I might add), Bloom told the Chronicle reporter he plans to return.

Mr. Bloom is on leave this academic year as a visiting professor here at the University of Michigan. Will Iowa welcome him back next fall, and will Mr. Bloom be comfortable returning?

The professor offers a hard-line answer: "Yeah, get used to it," he says. "I will be back.

Whether the people he writes about like his work "means nothing tome," he says. "I know Iowa really well. It is my laboratory."

Still, the virulent reaction to the story has clearly shaken him, and a small part of him wonders whether he will shy away from other articles about Iowa that are so hard-hitting.

"The next time I embark on a project like this," he says, "will I really want to follow through after all of this blow back?"

Bloom compared the blow back to his article to that of Grant Wood, who angered Iowans with his "American Gothic" painting, which they felt made Iowans seem too dour.

The link to the full article is here. (Subscription required)