Academia in a digital/networked world: a Guardian HE Network ‘live chat’

Along with my colleagues Sophie Hope and Lorraine Lim – with whom I am co-organising a postgraduate workshop series – I have been invited to partake in a ‘Live Chat’ hosted by the Guardian Higher Education Network. That chat, which takes place on 3 June 2011, addresses the topic ‘Breaching the digital divide: How could … Continue Reading

CFP on ‘the university to come’

UPDATE: The editors of TOPIA have been in touch (how very thorough of them!) and noted a correction – the number for this special issue is TOPIA 28. Original post: TOPIA, the Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies has released a call for papers seeking to tackle recent debates on the future of the university, from … Continue Reading

More to come…

It’s been too long since I have written in these parts. My excuse is twofold: (1) most importantly, happily becoming a parent for the first time this past December, which, for those in the know, is a momentous and notably anti-blog-post-writing event; and (2) enduring a remarkably busy teaching term, of which I am only … Continue Reading

New video on the death of the university, English-style

One of the more valuable interventions vis-à-vis the Browne Review (alongside Stefan Collini’s excellent article in the London Review of Books) has been Nick Couldry and Angela McRobbie’s ‘The Death of the University, English Style’. I liked their paper because it is succinct and also has a helpful focus on the implications for media and … Continue Reading

Save Middlesex Philosophy on video

Save Middlesex Philosophy from Norman Hastings on Vimeo. As many will know, though for reasons I still cannot fully grasp, Middelsex University is closing its philosophy programmes, and with them, the Centre for Modern European Philosophy. This short video takes you to the scene of the crime as it were, and includes interviews with Christian … Continue Reading

University of Sussex, but not as we knew it

A rather different University of Sussex than the one I recounted on my visit in January for an event dedicated to Roger Silverstone (and the naming of a new Silverstone Building on campus). The riot police shown in the clip embody the University’s apparently heavy-handed philosophy around how to respond to student protest. Students were … Continue Reading