This paper suggests that scholarship on the affective life of neoliberalism in academia needs to exercise more caution when it invokes the notions of "neoliberal subjects" and "neoliberal affects." It is argued that this scholarship needs to expand its conceptual and theoretical vocabulary to recognize the multiplicities of new…

The Russian invasion of Ukraine, on 24th February 2022, was met with widespread condemnation across Europe, with many universities and higher education-focussed national and regional organisations issuing their own public statements about the invasion and subsequent conflict and, in some cases, taking specific action in relation to one or both of…

Purpose: This article aims to address the response from the higher education (HE) sector in the United Kingdom (UK) to the full-scale war in Ukraine which started in 2022. Design/methodology/approach: Relying on theoretical ideas of neoliberalism and the collection and thematic analysis of relevant official communications from six UK universities,…

Universities in many liberal democracies, such as the US, the UK, or Germany, grapple with a pivotal question: how much room should be given to controversial utterances? On the one side, there are those who advocate for limiting permissible speech on campus to create a safe environment for a diverse student body and counter the mainstreaming of…

Research libraries are expected to provide and preserve collections in support of their institutions' research and teaching priorities and to support long-term access to cultural, historical, and scientific works. In today's polarized political environment, both libraries and universities have been at the heart of controversy. In this project, the…

Given interest in understanding how fraternities inform students' capacities for leadership, the purpose of this critical quantitative study was to investigate the precollege characteristics and higher education experiences influencing orientation toward political and social involvement among college fraternity men. Results demonstrated…

This paper examines Jean Floud's assessment of the work of Karl Mannheim, against the background of the development of British sociology of education in the 1940s and 50s. She compared his approach with that of Durkheim, concluding that both adopted a focus on social statics rather than dynamics, this reflecting their conservative political…

This document records testimony from a hearing held to examine the real impact of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) on college campuses. Member statements were presented by: (1) Honorable Burgess Owens, Chairman, Subcommittee on Higher Education and the Workforce Development; and (2) Honorable Suzanne Bonamici, a Representative in Congress…

Centers for undergraduate research and civic engagement are rare at the community college level. With two such Centers, both launched in 2022 and 2023 at a Midwestern Community College, we are examining how intentional mentoring efforts in undergraduate research and civic engagement at community colleges impact students' political efficacy and…

The rise in populism and movements that threaten trust in science and expertise has been labeled a post-truth world. What challenges does this environment present for higher education, and how should it respond? This article examines the characteristics of a post-truth world and how that challenges the fundamental purposes of higher education. It…

Released in the wake of postwar concerns over European totalitarianism, "Higher Education for American Democracy" offered a blueprint for a more socially inclusive college experience--one that could help bolster informed and thoughtful civic participation throughout the nation. Much of the six-volume report commissioned by President…

Social media has figured prominently in two literatures in recent years: the rise of authoritarian populism and the desirability of publicly engaged scholarship. This paper connects these two usually isolated areas of study through comparison of the role social media plays in each, identifying a tendency to avoid the complexity of this influence…

This paper examines the ways in which administrators, academics and students living under conditions of authoritarianism come to imagine the university's political possibilities and horizons. To this aim, we first consider how alternative imaginaries are constructed and contained at Bogaziçi University, where the parameters of political…

This article draws on the philosophical work on dialogic rationality offered by Charles Taylor as well as qualitative studies of dialogues between politically opposed college students to argue that these conversations succeed as tools of democracy precisely because they fail as interventions. That is, the democratic strength of such dialogue is…

The balance wheel hypothesis--a classic tenet of USA state-level policy analysis that suggests state funding for higher education varies in response to macroeconomic cycles--has held up to scrutiny over time. However, new social conditions within the Republican Party, namely growing hostility toward independent institutions, call for a more…