Reconstructing the Uni-versity: From the Ashes of the "Mega-" and "Multi-versity" to the Futures of Higher Education

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Slogans, myths, and isolated anecdotes are inadequate substitutes for documented history and contextual understanding.

Literature on the history of higher education is dominated by ahistorical and contextually ignorant slogans. Seldom acknowledged, in discussions of the decline or failure of the modern university, is 1) how long it has been going on (at least since the 1960s); and 2) universities own complicity in this long, complicated, and contradictory process. Myths intertwine inseparably with slogans to echo yet another lost cause. Our collective, as well as individual, pasts provide essential lessons if we know how to read and learn from them. More complicated is imagining a plausible better future for universities. In Reconstructing the Uni-veristy: From the Ashes of the Mega- and Multi-versity to New Futures of Higher Education, Harvey J. Graff, bringing experience from over 50 years as a professor, provides an accurate history of higher education, redefining the issues and terms to establish a new agenda.

Author Bio

Harvey J. Graff is Professor Emeritus of English and History, inaugural Ohio Eminent Scholar in Literacy Studies, and Academy Professor at The Ohio State University.