Are universities about selling information?
I don’t believe universities (in their best form, at least) are easily replicated by technological means of information dissemination. But despite the advantages their physicality and tradition offers, many universities have tended to see themselves as simply the means to fill students up with information, stick an “approved” stamp on them, and send them out into the world.
Can a teaching-focused law school fit into a public research university?
UCSD is considering merging or partnering with California Western School of Law, but some are concerned that Cal Western is too focused on teaching to fit into a research university.
Is the future of scholarship social? Should it be?
Reflecting on the release of Apple’s iPad, David Weinberger suggests that it is a device focused on consuming content and not producing it, and argues that the true future of reading is to become more social. Jim Milles questions scholars’ desire for this vision of the future.
Professionalization and the self-replication of university professors
There has been an ongoing discussion regarding the challenges facing higher education in the United States. These challenges are especially acute in the humanities, and of course a budget crisis and recession only magnifies existing problems.
Historians need to stop obsessing over writing books
Why are historians so obsessed with writing books?
Now that I’m on my second quarter of a PhD program in the History of Science, I am continuing to think about why I am doing this and what history (and History) has to offer, both to me and to the world at large. One concern I already have is with the apparent obsession with the book as the primary mechanism of disseminating the work of historians.
Who Could Be Hired Today?
Who Could Be Hired Today? (Concurring Opinions): The trend in hiring law professors with graduate training in other disciplines as well as law degrees is not new; it’s been underway at least since I was a student (1988−1991). Some of the best classes I took were with individuals who had such backgrounds. But the emphasis has become even […]
"Universities should not be in the social justice business"
This is a quote from Stanley Fish in an editorial in the New York Times, entitled Think Again. I highly recommend the discussion. It’s a well-reasoned and articulate argument for thinking over feeling in the classroom, for compartmentalization and intellectual passion for the material being taught. He counters the widespread postmodern argument that one cannot remove oneself ever […]
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