Resistance, dwelling, and the common good in the future university

First speaker
Barbara M. Grant

Title
The future is now – a thousand tiny universities

Abstract
In this seminar, I draw on theory and experience to meditate on our present moment in the university with an eye to its future. I argue that an important question for all of us who study and otherwise work in our troubled universities is how can we dwell there in a way that is alert to the daily possibilities of both resistance in the present and transformation towards our imagined future university. I propose the idea of a thousand tiny universities – a reworking of Deleuze and Guattari’s thousand tiny sexes (2013) – as one that offers a non-antagonistic basis for continually proposing and enacting the kind of university we believe is of most value to our societies, our world.

About the speaker
Barbara Grant is Associate Professor in the School of Critical Studies in Education at the University of Auckland where she researches in the field of critical university studies. She is interested in doctoral education, including the supervision of graduate students, as well as academic work and identities, and activism within the university.

Second speaker
Krystian Szadkowski

Title
The public good and the common good in higher education - differences, similarities and contradictions. A Polish case study

Abstract
Drawing on the results from the recent research on the idea of the public good in Polish higher education this paper addresses the culturally specific modes of constructing the public good and the common good by actors within the field (government, management, academics). The concepts in question (at least, when it comes to their discursive use in the context of higher education) have no clear boundaries, as they both express a more extensive normative call, and are often used interchangeably. This presentation discusses the corrupted forms of the common good, its ethos-related, communal and material aspects against the empirical material to provide a clearer view of the differences between the understanding of the higher education as the common good and as the public good.

About the speaker
Krystian Szadkowski is Assistant Professor at the Adam Mickiewicz University Institute of Philosophy, and researcher at UNESCO Chair for Institutional Research and Higher Education Policy. His research interests cover Marxian political economy and transformations of higher education systems in Europe.