Projects:

Remaking the University

Johns Hopkins University Press Book Series

• Brochure
• Jeffrey Williams (English, Carnegie Mellon University) and I have launched a book at The Johns Hopkins University Press. Called “Critical University Studies,” the series aims to capture and promote the development of Critical University Studies as distinct genre of critical analysis. We build on a tradition of criticism of the American university, one of whose early landmarks is Thorstein Veblen’s Higher Learning (1918).  Over the past decade it has become clear that the American university system has entered a different, confusing moment that calls for new forms of criticism. Critical University Studies emerges from the conviction that the university’s problems had become structural and long-term, and also that its social potential is being misunderstood and underdeveloped. CUS focuses both on critique of current trends and on providing analytic tools to rebuild colleges and universities internationally. The general aim is to allow universities to fulfill their highest social and intellectual ambitions.

Humanities Research Infrastructure:

• What do humanities scholars need in the way of research infrastructure? What do universities currently offer them? How can we close the gap?

The History and Future of Higher Education

• The premise of this co-located course, offered Spring 2014, was as follows: We believe advocacy and responsibility for shaping the future of higher education should be led by those who have most experience and most at stake in all the forms and institutions of advanced learning. The more varied the participation, the more we will learn. Beyond students and professors, we invite other stakeholders to join: administrators, policy makers, foundation and philanthropic leaders, librarians, curators, alt-ac professionals, business and political leaders, K-12 teachers and students, and the concerned public at large.