Whose University?

Goldsmiths and Birkbeck present WHOSE UNIVERSITY?, a two-day symposium co-hosted by GLITS, Goldsmiths Literature Seminar and InC Research Group in Continental Philosophy
9-10 June 2011

In the wake of the government’s plans to drastically alter the funding of higher education, the very ethos of the university is undergoing transformation.

At stake are learning for its own merit, the validity of disciplines, the forms of life there produced and the concept of academic freedom, all under scrutiny amidst concerns of value--monetary, societal, public and private.

The intention of this symposium is twofold: to defend the role of arts, humanities and social sciences in academic learning and to establish a discourse for the university as a public good beyond the well-rehearsed humanistic defences of the past and the emerging value-based discourses of the present.

Day 1: RESISTANCE, will be an interdisciplinary event that will foster debate on the current crisis in higher education, broadly based around the themes of Creation, Action and Critique. Why is the study of arts, humanities and social sciences indispensable? How are such fields crucial to critical reflection on human values and principles? What are the most effective modes of resisting the changes to higher education? What is the relationship between theoretical critique and political activism?

Confirmed speakers: Nina Power, Alberto Toscano, Peter de Bolla, Priyamvada Gopal, Andrew McGettigan, Simon Szreter, Sarah Wood, Sam Riviere, Luke Wright, University for Strategic Optimism, Stewart Motha, Simon Hewitt, Louise Purbick

Day 2: IDEA OF THE UNIVERSITY, a series of panel discussions, seeks to bring together philosophers and pedagogists to reflect on the question of 'What is a university?' and interrogate this historically contested institution that disciplines cohabitate, demarcate and regulate in terms of their particular subject, social, economic and political positions.

Confirmed speakers: Alexander Düttmann, Mary Evans, Gordon Finlayson, Roberto DiNapoli, Soo Tian Lee, Benjamin Noys, Stephen Rowland, Jennifer Saul, Anton Schutz

The symposium will conclude with a Roundtable discussion open to all participants.



For more info on WHOSE UNIVERSITY?, contact resistance-glits@gold.ac.uk and inc@gold.ac.uk


This event is sponsored by Goldsmiths' Graduate School and Visual Cultures Department, Birkbeck College, Open Birkbeck and organized by Jenny Doussan, Catherine Humble, Helen Palmer and Thanos Zartaloudis.