Interlude in Academe

Reclaiming Time and Space for Intellectual Life

Inbunden, Engelska, 2023

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This book is an exploration of the idea that interludes – or disruptions to our usual rhythms, rituals, and routines – offer individuals and institutions alike an incomparable opportunity to examine the governing assumptions that undergird academic work and to experiment with alternative modes and models of intellectual life. Using the COVID-19 pandemic as the prime example of an externally imposed interlude on a mass scale, the book argues that the compulsion of most colleges and universities to “return to business as usual” reveals that the “business” of the academic enterprise is only tangentially about learning, ideas, or the life of the mind. It is mostly about keeping the institutional machinery running at all costs, typically at the behest of state and market forces. Meanwhile, interludes of any size or duration, from massively disruptive global pandemics to brief elective personal retreats, offer occasions for interrogating our entrenched policies and practices and are simultaneously spaces for the pursuit of learning and idea play both within and beyond institutions.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2023-01-23
Mått158 x 237 x 20 mm
Vikt476 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor184
FörlagBloomsbury Publishing Plc
ISBN9781666900439

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AcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart I. Our Modern ConditionChapter 1. What the Pandemic Has UnmaskedChapter 2. Command PerformancesPart II. Alternative Modes and ModelsChapter 3. Finding Refuge and Regeneration in Temporary Autonomous ZonesChapter 4. Seeking Asylum in Freedom UniversityChapter 5. MOOC-topia: A Place for PoetryChapter 6. Antiuniversity NowPart III. Prefigurative ChangeChapter 7. PrivatizationChapter 8. “Thinking Little” (Practice, Not Policy)Conclusion: In Search of Academic FreedomBibliographyAbout the Author

Against the insistent pressure for the marketability and “impact”, David Siegel emphasizes the value of play in higher education. The time and space for play is the one irreplaceable thing that higher education provides, and Siegel traces the uses of play from Schiller’s aesthetic education to current alternatives, such as Freedom University, Anti-University, and Heterodox University. The book answers, beyond the many critiques of contemporary higher education, how might we restitute its better possibilities?