Among the Ruins of the University.

In this essay I evaluate the current state of the university in relation to the escalating crises of the past 10 years. I survey critiques that have been made by both the right and the left. Pointing to how the late works of Max Weber and Bruno Latour can be helpful in adjudicating these critiques,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social Research Vol. 92; no. 2; pp. 477 - 503
Main Author: Dirks, Nicholas B.
Format: Article
Published: Johns Hopkins University Press Summer2025
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Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
Description
Summary:In this essay I evaluate the current state of the university in relation to the escalating crises of the past 10 years. I survey critiques that have been made by both the right and the left. Pointing to how the late works of Max Weber and Bruno Latour can be helpful in adjudicating these critiques, I suggest the need to limit the political demands made on the university, while working to orient the humanities toward the myriad of current human challenges and developing new modes of critique and engagement. Only then might we reassert the centrality of the liberal arts as fundamental to the idea of the university in the twenty-first century.