Meeting Street Christopher Newfield on Building a More Democratic University
How do inequities in working conditions and resources across academic departments jeopardize the central project of higher education? And how might the humanities serve as a model for thinking about university reform and ensuring the democracy of our institutions?
In this episode of Meeting Street, Christopher Newfield, director of research at the Independent Social Research Foundation (ISRF) and 2022 president of the Modern Language Association (MLA), joins host Amanda Anderson for a conversation on the current state of higher education. Taking the field of critical university studies as a starting point, they consider how economic choices have led universities to prioritize departments, pitting STEM fields against the humanities and qualitative social sciences, and how this negatively impacts the general conditions and outcomes of both teaching and learning. The conversation also explores the nature of the humanities and its value to the contemporary world, particularly given present day struggles for equal access and social justice.