No University Is an Island: Saving Academic Freedom (Cultural Front Series)
From the book description:
"No University Is an Island offers a comprehensive account of the social, political, and cultural forces undermining academic freedom. At once witty and devastating, it confronts these threats with exceptional frankness, then offers a prescription for higher education's renewal. In an insider's account of how the primary organization for faculty members nationwide has fought the culture wars, Cary Nelson, the current President of the American Association of University Professors, unveils struggles over governance and unionization and the increasing corporatization of higher education. Peppered throughout with previously unreported, and sometimes incendiary, higher education anecdotes, Nelson is at his flame-throwing best. The book calls on higher education's advocates of both the Left and the Right to temper conviction with tolerance and focus on higher education's real injustices. Nelson demands we stop denying teachers, student workers, and other employees a living wage and basic rights. He urges unions to take up the larger cause of justice. And he challenges his own and other academic organizations to embrace greater democracy."
Why this is progressive/liberal: The role and purpose of higher education has been debated and contested for as long as it has existed. Some see higher education as a way to teach about the human experience, others as a sort of vocational training to improve earning potential. Cary Nelson, president of the American Association of University Professors, sees the role of universities as upholding progressive values, and makes the argument for the importance of that role in this book.
Buy the Kindle version: No University Is an Island (Cultural Front)
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