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University of Chicago

University of Chicago's course descriptions average 67.3 on the 100-to-0 ruler: clearly left of center. Across all 100 schools, the average is 67.5, so University of Chicago reads 0.3 points further right.

ShowCompared withDepartments

Liberal (100)center (50)Conservative (0)

University of Chicago: 67.3 (likely range 66.3 to 68.3) All 100 schools: 67.5 each other school in the comparison

Where its courses fall

7%Far left92–100

43%Left75–91

38%Center-left59–74

5%Center42–58

3%Center-right26–41

4%Right9–25

1%Far right0–8

531 plotted courses (the ones with a political subject). 100 = far left, 50 = the average American, 0 = far right. Subject places what a course studies, not the side it takes.

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Framing Subject

Subject places what a course studies, not the side it takes. A course on slavery or the Holocaust lands far right and a course on Marx or the Soviet Union lands far left, whether the course praises, criticizes or simply describes it.

Underlined: words the model quoted from the description when we asked it, after scoring, to explain its score.

Furthest-left subjects

ANTH 26636 · Liberatory Violence100

Anthropology

From 18th century slave rebellions in the Americas to 20th and 21st century anticolonial revolutions, oppressed peoples' struggles for liberation have often incorporated violent tactics, even against non-combatants. This course examines…

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ENGL 21720 · Science fiction against the state100

English & Comparative Literature

This course reads science fiction and other texts (including theory, essays and zines) that imagine what it might mean to live against, beyond or without the state, and thus beyond or against the law, the police and capitalism. We will…

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ENGL 27714 · Reproductive citizens: sex, work, and embodiment100

English & Comparative Literature

In this class, we focus on literature, film, history, and theory that deal with biological and social reproduction, motherhood and the politics of the home and family, and domestic and sexual labor. Our readings and viewings are centered in…

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Furthest-right subjects

ANTH 21901 · Race, Science and Empire0

Anthropology

The eighteenth century bore witness to the concomitant rise of scientific discovery and a modern sensibility of race hierarchy. Enlightenment pioneers-many with ties to the slave trade-who spearheaded the Age of Discovery also laid the…

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ARTH 21821 · (Re-)Living Nazi Germany through the Eyes of the Graphic Novel0

Art & Art History

This course considers the graphic novel as an aesthetic and political response to Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. Through close reading of three paradigmatic graphic novels by German and American artists from WWII to the present day, we…

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CMLT 28872 · Jews in Nazi Germany: Lion Feuchtwanger's novel The Oppermanns in historical context0

English & Comparative Literature

Recently republished in 2022, Lion Feuchtwanger's 1933 best-seller The Oppermanns depicts a Jewish family who grapple with the Nazi seizure of power in Germany. Like many at the time, the Oppemanns think that the regime will be short-lived,…

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Why this number, in plain words

Political lean of course descriptions. Average Framing score (0 = far right, 50 = center, 100 = far left) of the scored courses in the group.

50 is the survey-anchored center of US adults on each issue (the "moderate" place of the ANES/GSS/PRRI seven-label ruler), not the cohort midpoint; scores above 50 read leftward, below 50 rightward.

Counted: courses with a Framing score (categories L/R/B/C). The likely range (95% interval) is 66.3 to 68.3; a comparison whose range overlaps this one is not a reliable difference.

Most course descriptions carry no political lean at all and are not in this average; the "share described from the left" view counts them.
Readings are of catalog description text, not of teaching, syllabi or individual professors.

University of Chicago by department (share of courses described from the left)

Department	Left-framed share	Courses
Ethnic & African American Studies	55.7%	79	view
Women's & Gender Studies	46.7%	90	view
Anthropology	31.6%	171	view
Sociology	16.7%	72	view
History	12.4%	218	view
English & Comparative Literature	11.9%	494	view
Political Science	9.7%	144	view
Art & Art History	5.4%	240	view
Psychology	4.3%	92	view
Religious Studies	3.3%	91	view
Philosophy	2.4%	82	view
Economics	0%	181	view

Lean (mean Framing score) is not published per department within a school; only the left-framed share is. Department rows carry no interval.

Details: exact rows, definitions and method

Name	Metric	Value	95% interval	n	scored
University of Chicago	mean_bias_score	67.3	66.3 – 68.3	1,954	276
All 100 schools	mean_bias_score	67.5	67.4 – 67.7	124,290	10,124

Formula: SUM(bias_score) / COUNT(bias_score)
Interval: normal approximation: mean +/- 1.96 * sd / sqrt(n), sample sd (n-1); undefined when n < 2
Model / prompt / snapshot: gpt-5.6-sol · r12 (2026-10-16-le49-r12) · 6df50b10
Metric caveats: Scored courses only (L/R/B/C); N and I carry no score and are excluded, so n here is smaller than the group's course count. Scores are model readings of catalog description text against a fixed anchored definition, not teaching or syllabi. The interval covers sampling noise in the mean only; it does not represent model reading error. Every value carries a `method` label: exact_rows or histogram_midpoint.

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