Critical Intersections: Conversations on History, Race, and Science
The modern, "global" university exists as a site of the transnational circulation of ideas, people, and capital. As universities seek to reckon with their histories and existing practices of colonialism, many have begun to ask how to "decolonize" these institutions and transform them into institutions that promote equity and justice. But the growing business of universities as multinational corporations has illustrated how these institutions often perpetuate inequalities. In this event, we ask: What does it mean to suggest that a university is global? Can the "global" be separated from the colonial? What does it mean to decolonize a university? Are universities capable of creating equity?
Professor Sharon Stein of the Department of Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver - a specialist in the colonial legacies of knowledge practices - and Professor Stephanie K. Kim - a scholar of transnational universities in Georgetown's School of Continuing Studies - will join in conversation about how to articulate, interrogate, and model the many ways in which the twenty-first university continues to be situated in the marketplace of determining the value of ideas and the individuals who espouse them. This discussion builds upon the first Critical Intersections event, which discussed the several genealogies that combined over time to form the contemporary university, to ponder how the various structures that supported the multiple endeavors of learning, classification, enculturation, and edification were embedded in even larger systems of cultural, material, and social production.
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The theme of the "Critical Intersections: Conversations on Race, History, and Science" seminar series for the 2021–2022 academic year is "Putting the University in its Place." It invites conversation about the histories, places, and people that make up the modern university. The events are jointly organized by faculty in the Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences [Maura Dykstra (Assistant Professor of History), Jennifer Jahner (Professor of English), and Hillary Mushkin (Research Professor of Art and Design)] and University Archivist Peter Collopy.
This webinar has been made possible thanks to the generous support of the Caltech Y.