This fall I will be presenting at two conferences: at the 4S and at the University of Crete.
I have been invited to speak at a conference organized by the University of Crete on October 3-5, called On shifting grounds – the study of archaeological practices in a changing world.
In September I will be the 4S Society for Social Studies of Science meeting in New Orleans. My paper is in the ‘STS and Universities’ session. (See abstracts below). Additionally, the NESTSMX team are part of the ‘Querying STS Innovations‘ Exhibit.
4S Paper title: The Neoliberal University In The Global South. Lessons From A Failed Chile-US Scientific Collaboration.
Paper Abstract: In 2009, the uncritical assumption that scientists and students in different countries experience and respond to neoliberalism in the same way led to the spectacular failure of a US-Chilean archaeological collaboration. In Chile, universities have always been central battlegrounds during national political upheavals. Associated first with progressive liberal democracy following independence from Spain, and later with 1960s socialist popularism; universities were the first and last sites of active repression during the 1973-1980 Pinochet dictatorship. In 2006, 2008, and 2011-13 country-wide demonstrations against the privatization of higher education became emblematic of Chileans’ struggle to redefine public participation in the democratic era and to cast-off the violent neoliberalism that characterized the dictatorship. Drawing from a multisited ethnography of transnational scientific collaborations, this paper examines the consequences of assuming that universities and scientific communities everywhere experience globalization and neoliberalism in the same way.
4S Session Title: STS and Universities III
Session Description: Universities now occupy a strategic place in the so-called knowledge society or information-based political economy, supplying a rapidly growing demand for new kinds of expertise in nearly all areas of modern life, especially in wealthy countries. At the same time, universities are under considerable pressure to adapt to global ideas and practices about neo-liberalism and new public management, along with the quest for ‘excellence’ and ‘innovation’ with respect to teaching, research, and outreach. Consequently, universities increasingly are expected to make themselves accountable and auditable by producing quantitative information on certain activities that enable the formation of metrics, rankings, and other new forms of control, including the management of branding, incomes, and outcomes. What is counted then counts, defining new criteria for evaluating admission, hiring, advancement, worthy subjects of inqu iry, and modes of circulating knowledge. STS has considerable potential to study universities as political economic actors, institutions, enterprises, and places of work, study, and the making of knowledge. We invite contributions that address how universities have engaged with these changing political economies of research and higher education. Papers that address how these demands are reshaping the interrelationship between research and teaching, departmental cultures, academic life, and intersectional issues in universities are also welcome.
