The (Technological) University We Could Be For

Panelists: Geof Bowker, Informatics, UC Irvine; Beth Coleman, Comparative Media Studies, MIT; Johanna Drucker, Information Studies, UCLA; Christopher Newfield, English, UC Santa Barbara; and Nishant Shah, Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore.

The academy has been under considerable pressure recently, both fiscally and fueled by new pressures on knowledge formation, pedagogical delivery, and organizational form. This has understandably prompted both anxiety and critical responses among faculty, students, research and administrative staff. The university has come into question, both within and without. By contrast, there has been much less elaboration about the university to which we should be for, that which we aspire to work together to promote, whether in the tradition of Cardinal Newman’s or Jaroslav Jan Pelikan’s reflections on “the idea of the university” or in Jacques Derrida’s critical conception of the university without condition. There has been considerable discussion about long-distance learning, but but other technological impacts have been arguably more far-reaching and profound. This distinguished panel will lead a discussion of “the university we are for,” focusing especially on the impacts new technologies are having on pedagogy and institutional structure, on research and engagement in and across the academy.