Hard Eight: Auto-ethnographic Essays on Academic Culture Featuring the End of the Arts & Sciences College College, University of Toledo, 2010 (original) (raw)

Oh the Humanities!: The Consequences of the Conservative Infiltration of the Post-9/11 University

While the war on higher education started long before the terrorist attacks and the ensuing War on Terror (H. Giroux 141), the aftermath of these events have led to the attempted dismantling of the university and the defamation of the Liberal Arts. When coupled with the aggressive form of neoliberalism that underscores our lives and renders the individual a consumer and virtually everything else a commodity, it is important for the university to understand its role in the formation of critical, intellectually-responsible students. Instead, this obligation has been dismantled in the face of anti-intellectualism, spawning a detrimental response from the conservative public and even Humanities academics alike.

The End of the Modern Academy: At the University of Chicago, for Example

Social Research: An International Quarterly, 2017

The title of this essay is meant to suggest a particular understanding of the mission or end of the modern academy as exemplified by certain ideals associated in the minds of many academics around the world with the University of Chicago. The title is also meant to signal and raise concerns about contemporary threats to that mission, even at the University of Chicago itself. Examined in the essay are three core values of the modern academy. Are they foolish ideals? Have they become postmodern antiques? Ideal #1: "Research done primarily in anticipation of profit is incompatible with the aims of the university." Ideal #2: "The basic principles of the university include complete freedom of research and the unrestricted dissemination of information." Ideal #3: "There must be no consideration of sex, ethnic or national characteristics, or political or religious beliefs or affiliations in any decision regarding appointment, promotion, or reappointment at any level of the academic staff."

The Crisis in the Humanities and the Corporate Attack on the University

Top administrators in higher education are well aware that their success depends not upon the quality of education, or even less taking responsibility for the citizens of the next generation as they graduate, but on maintaining a massive profit. The decision-making process depends upon adopting a business model according to which financial criteria supersede any other criteria, including education, academic integrity, or citizenship. From the perspective of socioeconomic self-interest, which is indeed their governing or even sole perspective, these well-positioned decision-makers have absolutely no reason to concern themselves with the political effects of shutting down the humanities. For they are part of the oligarchic interest group, and are content to graduate students who know only how to make money for a corporation. The results within the academy are clear to view.