This is a great idea, one I’d want to participate in as an ex-academic who in my academic life worked on freedom school/autonomous university projects (via Undercommoning). There’s some cool projects on the go right now including the Abolition School/WEB DuBois Movement School and the Brooklyn institute for Social Research that could be looked to as models or collaborators. Purged and disgruntled post-academics unite. You have nothing to lose but your tenure application!
As someone who used to work as staff at a university supporting profs, I love this idea! It could also be an opportunity to move out of the elitist components of the academy where profs who don't have intrinsic relational responsibilities to communities are designing and delivering courses in isolation, not working with communities to see what kinds of courses are wanted and to think about who has relevant expertise to teach or co-teach those courses -- which might not always be university profs. It could shift the role of an academic from being someone who expounds on things, to someone who actively works with communities to co-design programs and co-develop teaching modes and skills that are resonant not only in what is taught but how learning happens. (Recognizing that many Indigenous profs are working in this way already, even if the university employer doesn't have a clue about those community responsibilities.)
Curious if you see a potential research side of this or if you're thinking of it specifically on the teaching side. I can see a lot of potential on the research side as well, that frees people up from "publish or perish" efforts that have no function other than ticking a university admin box.
Would love also to hear more about how in a setup up like this you'd view balancing academic freedom in relation to academic responsibility. In institutions where progressive learning, writing, and organizing is being brutally suppressed, the principles of academic freedom are an obvious focus. But where the issue is historical revisionism in the academy (e.g., Nakba denial, residential school denial), it seems we need more focus on academic responsibility -- academic freedom doesn't mean "anything goes", just like free speech more generally. You're such a sharp thinker, would love to hear more on your thoughts about this.
I'm a 4th-year undergraduate history major at UBC. I took part in the encampment and would love to leave the university as fast as possible--unfortunately, it's the only way to get my degree, which I need to go to graduate school (I've come to the conclusion that if I go to graduate school, it will be in China and not in the West). I intended to find a job in academia because I'm very passionate about reading, writing, education, etc., but at this point, I'm completely disillusioned. All the best professors seem scared to speak the truth, and my impression is that many academics who are hired there prioritize holding affluent positions rather than teaching. (It's like all the great professors are being held hostage by an army of administrators.) I find the idea of starting an anti-genocidal people's university very appealing.
I feel there is a need to separate academia from the workplace. Workers should be students and students workers. So I have always believed. The problem is not only that education has become too expensive for many, but also that workers are spending a great deal of time trying to make a living doing routine tasks that don't require much creativity or innovation. Then then there is no time after work to do much more than consume entertainment before you are called to the grindstone again. This work is necessary to gain housing and sustenace. A basic income would be a great thing as would a community based on mutual support that shared tasks, opening up space for all to read a series of books, create a device or painting, build a house, go to a play or craft a play. And, physical labor has its benefits, too. The university is that community of universal people.
It ie the end of the universities as we know them but it is, as you say, the opportunity of beginning something new; without borders. A free exchange of knowledge. Where West and East, North and South could meet. In order to revisa our histories and make room for the silenced ones.
A very exciting proposal Justin.
I dare to say, that if we do it from a simple approach, we would be inclusive and we would be under the radar of today’s technology. If the young people prefer to do this using the latest technology you will leave behind all the 60 plussers and that would be a shame and a lost opportunity.
Once I saw a film of teachers in the mountains of Afghanistan who raised with their blackboards on their back and everytime they encounter a child taking care of goats, they would teach them something. I loved it.
I firmly believe that gratuity, generosity is de Achiles’ talón capitalism.
I was so excited when you mentioned this during the sit rep last year. As a current academic with over 20 years of experience teaching undergraduates, it sounds like something I would love to be a part of! I am adjunct faculty, which means I have no job security and thus not very much freedom in the way of what my course content can include. It would be wonderful to openly discuss Palestine, among other "taboo" subjects such as challenging Western exceptionalism.
Regarding your point on web infrastructure, maybe Tech for Palestine might be able to help in that area?
I'm no academic but this model could include the majority in the Global South on the basis of an educational commons. Promoting critical thinking, the arts, an historical dialectic with an anti-imperial {forgive the plagiarism) philosophical, political, economic, ecological, socialist pedagogy.
I really love your idea of a different type of learning environment. I chose not to go to college. High school taught me that textbooks were written in such a way that the only truths told were the ones palatable to the government or “polite” society. Everything was memorization, rather than discussion and critical thought. I figured college would be more of the same.
The college I would have gladly attended would not have textbooks but books by writers from around the world on the various subjects under discussion. There would be classes on a “worldwide melting pot” of cultures, traditions, healing, music, art, dance, plants, housing, stories, governmental systems, etc.
The end result would be people with a multiplicity of ideas, experiences, opening of minds and hearts to envelope the entirety of human experiences from around the world. This would gift each person with an understanding of the breadth and depth of thought that can be found when people from everywhere share the knowledge and
traditions that were given to them.
I was in high school when I found out my family was First Nations from Canada. My Grandmother and her sister were warned to never tell anyone when they were growing up in fear of what might happen to them. They had left Canada to find work in New York. Imagine my surprise in realizing that none of my families’ experiences were taught in any class or in any textbook. It would be important for settler colonialism, white supremacy, genocide, apartheid, etc. to be taught and discussed. So many human rights violations exist in the world that so many know nothing about to the detriment of us all. For if the majority do not know of injustice, then how can it be stopped?
Open minds and hearts would not only allow people to grow in themselves but would also create more well-rounded physicians, musicians, artists, teachers, researchers, scientists, etc.
I think the world loses so much when people are locked into narrow tunnels of learning. There are many people who are travelers and thirst for knowledge from other lands. Yet there are many who cannot travel the world, even though they have the same thirst for knowledge and understanding. A learning space that would provide such diversity of learning would be a gift to all.
Like others here I find this a great idea. Many aspects of such a project are going to be a huge challenge. Maybe a kind of bricolage could play a role? Like starting out by suggesting a set of basic principles something like Elinor Ostrom's 8 principles for operating the commons.
Where do i sign up? ❤️🔥. To add to the discussion, we can also establish placed based study groups, providing peer networks while contributing to broader configuration and community building!
In the 1930’s with the depression, the catholic worker was born. Despite the conservatism of catholicism, what Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day brought to the map was: personal responsability, a type of anarchism.
The worker to the class and the university to the fields! This could be a great principle to work with.
Here is how i learn of the grape boycott at the end of the 80’s. We did not only received refugees, but we also discussed ethical issues like: should we eat the grapes that we have received for free?
Loved it!. I hope we can give each other the crispinness of ethical thinking and doing, specially now, when Lying in all its forms is becoming a refined art.
Neoliberal background soup: Universities for reasons of state to market players
Nation states used to carry universities to foster education, including investing in a class of civil servants to run the state itself. Certified judges, civil servants, road safety and public health inspectors were expected to act "professionally" with little supervision, having internalized the perspective of the state.
The neoliberal state does not trust nor invest in people, only markets and market forces. This is key to understanding why "universities are dying".
Management: Universities used to be self-governed (if hierarchical) like a guild, filling leadership positions (rectors, deans, etc.) from within their own ranks. Nowadays members of the management caste may run or sit on the board of Pepsi one day and a university on the next. Middle-management has expanded massively while number of researchers and teachers has stagnated.
Precariousness: to ensure the loyalty of professionals, jobs were endowed with prestige, including job security and decent salaries. Most new hires on all levels at uni get as little job security and pay as remaining legislation and market conditions allow.
De-skilling and "feminization": Teaching and technical support jobs have been de-skilled and micro-managed: E.g. lecturers are hired on short notice without much expertise in the subject to be taught and handed predetermined power point presentations to follow. Sociologists refer to this as "feminization" as this process usually coincides with women first reaching balance and then overtaking men in the workforce at this level while prestige and pay plummets.
Juvenilization: Conversely, "learners" are also not trusted to make their own decisions. There used to be few mandatory classes on graduate level. Nowadays even post-docs sometimes come with mandatory course-work, mostly in branding, application writing, and self-management rather than actual science or scholarship.
Managerialism: Since medieval times, once a journeyman was certified as having attained the level of master, they were at least nominally considered experts at eye level with all the other members of the guild. As lip service to this idea, even star academics still only give their name and the letters "Ph.D" rather than list their more important titles. However, the neo-liberal university needs winners and losers at all times at all levels, hence every academic is now constantly ranked on their track record of publications and increasingly directly on their past fund-raising ability.
Sadly academics have devised the algorithms to do this ranking ourselves, which now permeates academic careers and is increasingly let loose on all workers. To add insult to injury, academics spent an ungodly amount of time in unpaid labor reviewing and evaluating each others' papers and proposals. For outsiders: yes, this is equivalent to requiring all employees to constantly have an above-average number of postings and followers on facebook to be able to continue their career. I know this is hard to believe.
From my own experience working in universities in North America and Europe, academics are in constant fighting mode over resources to the exclusion of all else, this dominated discussions in all settings even in those fields that are functional and productive.
Depolitization: politics is seen as a part of a personal "brand" and is genuinely discouraged. The way politics is performed is top down from corporate management, ideally as nudging to score points and create photo-ops such as attaining a Athena Swan Silver Star for gender equality (at least under liberal governments).
Short-time focus on applied research for privatized gains: As an extreme example, while universities shift funds towards producing graduates with backgrounds in AI, the number of chairs in advanced mathematics in the US is cut down, as the machine learning systems behind most AI systems actually require little maths beyond linear algebra.
I find it instructive to look at the recently created high tier "Janelia" research institution: They have 15 year fully financed grants, actively discourage their researchers to spend time on application writing, and encourage (internal) collaboration. In this they have rectified key impediments to doing actual science in contemporary academia.
However, their model is as hierarchical as anywhere within academia: small teams headed by individuals. Even in the corporate world there are many more "flat" management structures, such as startups run by a group of equal partners each holding the same amount of equity [apparently the only form of true equality recognized by neoliberals].
In academia it is literally impossible for a group of people to simply work together on a project without each having to become the boss of someone else. There should be room for alternatives...
I love what you have proposed! I'm a failed academic (rather, I didn't really try, which at first was hard to accept but now I am glad I didn't) and I would be thrilled to participate in this in some way. I had a dream of being a professor and researcher in the humanities but had to give up on it for practical purposes. Am not sure how I could participate - I have a bachelor's degree but no advanced degree. I would like the opportunity to do further study, research, and writing with a mentor, knowing that it might not be the way I make a living... Am curious to read through all the comments here for ideas and think through what I could possibly contribute.
I only wish I could help on the faculty side, however I have no experience in academia outside of my undergraduate degree. That being said i’d be honored to be a student in this environment. I am definitely interested in how art is used in practice, which is something i pursue in independent reading of socialist artists and their theories and histories, and through my own studio practice. I’m curious what arts can be involved in something like this? Maybe some day if I work through my own student projects and research with this school I could end up teaching. That’s my goal: Teach painting under the umbrella of socialist realism. Oh how capitalism refuses us our dreams.
This is a great idea, one I’d want to participate in as an ex-academic who in my academic life worked on freedom school/autonomous university projects (via Undercommoning). There’s some cool projects on the go right now including the Abolition School/WEB DuBois Movement School and the Brooklyn institute for Social Research that could be looked to as models or collaborators. Purged and disgruntled post-academics unite. You have nothing to lose but your tenure application!
As someone who used to work as staff at a university supporting profs, I love this idea! It could also be an opportunity to move out of the elitist components of the academy where profs who don't have intrinsic relational responsibilities to communities are designing and delivering courses in isolation, not working with communities to see what kinds of courses are wanted and to think about who has relevant expertise to teach or co-teach those courses -- which might not always be university profs. It could shift the role of an academic from being someone who expounds on things, to someone who actively works with communities to co-design programs and co-develop teaching modes and skills that are resonant not only in what is taught but how learning happens. (Recognizing that many Indigenous profs are working in this way already, even if the university employer doesn't have a clue about those community responsibilities.)
Curious if you see a potential research side of this or if you're thinking of it specifically on the teaching side. I can see a lot of potential on the research side as well, that frees people up from "publish or perish" efforts that have no function other than ticking a university admin box.
Would love also to hear more about how in a setup up like this you'd view balancing academic freedom in relation to academic responsibility. In institutions where progressive learning, writing, and organizing is being brutally suppressed, the principles of academic freedom are an obvious focus. But where the issue is historical revisionism in the academy (e.g., Nakba denial, residential school denial), it seems we need more focus on academic responsibility -- academic freedom doesn't mean "anything goes", just like free speech more generally. You're such a sharp thinker, would love to hear more on your thoughts about this.
Great points - I'm curious to hear Justin's thought on this too.
I'm a 4th-year undergraduate history major at UBC. I took part in the encampment and would love to leave the university as fast as possible--unfortunately, it's the only way to get my degree, which I need to go to graduate school (I've come to the conclusion that if I go to graduate school, it will be in China and not in the West). I intended to find a job in academia because I'm very passionate about reading, writing, education, etc., but at this point, I'm completely disillusioned. All the best professors seem scared to speak the truth, and my impression is that many academics who are hired there prioritize holding affluent positions rather than teaching. (It's like all the great professors are being held hostage by an army of administrators.) I find the idea of starting an anti-genocidal people's university very appealing.
I feel there is a need to separate academia from the workplace. Workers should be students and students workers. So I have always believed. The problem is not only that education has become too expensive for many, but also that workers are spending a great deal of time trying to make a living doing routine tasks that don't require much creativity or innovation. Then then there is no time after work to do much more than consume entertainment before you are called to the grindstone again. This work is necessary to gain housing and sustenace. A basic income would be a great thing as would a community based on mutual support that shared tasks, opening up space for all to read a series of books, create a device or painting, build a house, go to a play or craft a play. And, physical labor has its benefits, too. The university is that community of universal people.
I’m so glad you wrote this! I’m excited to think about this with other ex/exiting/exiled academics and learners.
It ie the end of the universities as we know them but it is, as you say, the opportunity of beginning something new; without borders. A free exchange of knowledge. Where West and East, North and South could meet. In order to revisa our histories and make room for the silenced ones.
A very exciting proposal Justin.
I dare to say, that if we do it from a simple approach, we would be inclusive and we would be under the radar of today’s technology. If the young people prefer to do this using the latest technology you will leave behind all the 60 plussers and that would be a shame and a lost opportunity.
Once I saw a film of teachers in the mountains of Afghanistan who raised with their blackboards on their back and everytime they encounter a child taking care of goats, they would teach them something. I loved it.
I firmly believe that gratuity, generosity is de Achiles’ talón capitalism.
Let’s do it.
I was so excited when you mentioned this during the sit rep last year. As a current academic with over 20 years of experience teaching undergraduates, it sounds like something I would love to be a part of! I am adjunct faculty, which means I have no job security and thus not very much freedom in the way of what my course content can include. It would be wonderful to openly discuss Palestine, among other "taboo" subjects such as challenging Western exceptionalism.
Regarding your point on web infrastructure, maybe Tech for Palestine might be able to help in that area?
This is great, and it applies across the board, including the sciences and medicine.
It would need to be created in a decentralized way, so as to not become co-opted and recreate the same structures we are dismantling
Brilliant, Justin.
I'm no academic but this model could include the majority in the Global South on the basis of an educational commons. Promoting critical thinking, the arts, an historical dialectic with an anti-imperial {forgive the plagiarism) philosophical, political, economic, ecological, socialist pedagogy.
Just my two cents,
I really love your idea of a different type of learning environment. I chose not to go to college. High school taught me that textbooks were written in such a way that the only truths told were the ones palatable to the government or “polite” society. Everything was memorization, rather than discussion and critical thought. I figured college would be more of the same.
The college I would have gladly attended would not have textbooks but books by writers from around the world on the various subjects under discussion. There would be classes on a “worldwide melting pot” of cultures, traditions, healing, music, art, dance, plants, housing, stories, governmental systems, etc.
The end result would be people with a multiplicity of ideas, experiences, opening of minds and hearts to envelope the entirety of human experiences from around the world. This would gift each person with an understanding of the breadth and depth of thought that can be found when people from everywhere share the knowledge and
traditions that were given to them.
I was in high school when I found out my family was First Nations from Canada. My Grandmother and her sister were warned to never tell anyone when they were growing up in fear of what might happen to them. They had left Canada to find work in New York. Imagine my surprise in realizing that none of my families’ experiences were taught in any class or in any textbook. It would be important for settler colonialism, white supremacy, genocide, apartheid, etc. to be taught and discussed. So many human rights violations exist in the world that so many know nothing about to the detriment of us all. For if the majority do not know of injustice, then how can it be stopped?
Open minds and hearts would not only allow people to grow in themselves but would also create more well-rounded physicians, musicians, artists, teachers, researchers, scientists, etc.
I think the world loses so much when people are locked into narrow tunnels of learning. There are many people who are travelers and thirst for knowledge from other lands. Yet there are many who cannot travel the world, even though they have the same thirst for knowledge and understanding. A learning space that would provide such diversity of learning would be a gift to all.
Like others here I find this a great idea. Many aspects of such a project are going to be a huge challenge. Maybe a kind of bricolage could play a role? Like starting out by suggesting a set of basic principles something like Elinor Ostrom's 8 principles for operating the commons.
Just a thought.
Where do i sign up? ❤️🔥. To add to the discussion, we can also establish placed based study groups, providing peer networks while contributing to broader configuration and community building!
In the 1930’s with the depression, the catholic worker was born. Despite the conservatism of catholicism, what Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day brought to the map was: personal responsability, a type of anarchism.
The worker to the class and the university to the fields! This could be a great principle to work with.
Here is how i learn of the grape boycott at the end of the 80’s. We did not only received refugees, but we also discussed ethical issues like: should we eat the grapes that we have received for free?
Loved it!. I hope we can give each other the crispinness of ethical thinking and doing, specially now, when Lying in all its forms is becoming a refined art.
Neoliberal background soup: Universities for reasons of state to market players
Nation states used to carry universities to foster education, including investing in a class of civil servants to run the state itself. Certified judges, civil servants, road safety and public health inspectors were expected to act "professionally" with little supervision, having internalized the perspective of the state.
The neoliberal state does not trust nor invest in people, only markets and market forces. This is key to understanding why "universities are dying".
Management: Universities used to be self-governed (if hierarchical) like a guild, filling leadership positions (rectors, deans, etc.) from within their own ranks. Nowadays members of the management caste may run or sit on the board of Pepsi one day and a university on the next. Middle-management has expanded massively while number of researchers and teachers has stagnated.
Precariousness: to ensure the loyalty of professionals, jobs were endowed with prestige, including job security and decent salaries. Most new hires on all levels at uni get as little job security and pay as remaining legislation and market conditions allow.
De-skilling and "feminization": Teaching and technical support jobs have been de-skilled and micro-managed: E.g. lecturers are hired on short notice without much expertise in the subject to be taught and handed predetermined power point presentations to follow. Sociologists refer to this as "feminization" as this process usually coincides with women first reaching balance and then overtaking men in the workforce at this level while prestige and pay plummets.
Juvenilization: Conversely, "learners" are also not trusted to make their own decisions. There used to be few mandatory classes on graduate level. Nowadays even post-docs sometimes come with mandatory course-work, mostly in branding, application writing, and self-management rather than actual science or scholarship.
Managerialism: Since medieval times, once a journeyman was certified as having attained the level of master, they were at least nominally considered experts at eye level with all the other members of the guild. As lip service to this idea, even star academics still only give their name and the letters "Ph.D" rather than list their more important titles. However, the neo-liberal university needs winners and losers at all times at all levels, hence every academic is now constantly ranked on their track record of publications and increasingly directly on their past fund-raising ability.
Sadly academics have devised the algorithms to do this ranking ourselves, which now permeates academic careers and is increasingly let loose on all workers. To add insult to injury, academics spent an ungodly amount of time in unpaid labor reviewing and evaluating each others' papers and proposals. For outsiders: yes, this is equivalent to requiring all employees to constantly have an above-average number of postings and followers on facebook to be able to continue their career. I know this is hard to believe.
From my own experience working in universities in North America and Europe, academics are in constant fighting mode over resources to the exclusion of all else, this dominated discussions in all settings even in those fields that are functional and productive.
Depolitization: politics is seen as a part of a personal "brand" and is genuinely discouraged. The way politics is performed is top down from corporate management, ideally as nudging to score points and create photo-ops such as attaining a Athena Swan Silver Star for gender equality (at least under liberal governments).
Short-time focus on applied research for privatized gains: As an extreme example, while universities shift funds towards producing graduates with backgrounds in AI, the number of chairs in advanced mathematics in the US is cut down, as the machine learning systems behind most AI systems actually require little maths beyond linear algebra.
I find it instructive to look at the recently created high tier "Janelia" research institution: They have 15 year fully financed grants, actively discourage their researchers to spend time on application writing, and encourage (internal) collaboration. In this they have rectified key impediments to doing actual science in contemporary academia.
However, their model is as hierarchical as anywhere within academia: small teams headed by individuals. Even in the corporate world there are many more "flat" management structures, such as startups run by a group of equal partners each holding the same amount of equity [apparently the only form of true equality recognized by neoliberals].
In academia it is literally impossible for a group of people to simply work together on a project without each having to become the boss of someone else. There should be room for alternatives...
I love what you have proposed! I'm a failed academic (rather, I didn't really try, which at first was hard to accept but now I am glad I didn't) and I would be thrilled to participate in this in some way. I had a dream of being a professor and researcher in the humanities but had to give up on it for practical purposes. Am not sure how I could participate - I have a bachelor's degree but no advanced degree. I would like the opportunity to do further study, research, and writing with a mentor, knowing that it might not be the way I make a living... Am curious to read through all the comments here for ideas and think through what I could possibly contribute.
I only wish I could help on the faculty side, however I have no experience in academia outside of my undergraduate degree. That being said i’d be honored to be a student in this environment. I am definitely interested in how art is used in practice, which is something i pursue in independent reading of socialist artists and their theories and histories, and through my own studio practice. I’m curious what arts can be involved in something like this? Maybe some day if I work through my own student projects and research with this school I could end up teaching. That’s my goal: Teach painting under the umbrella of socialist realism. Oh how capitalism refuses us our dreams.