2009 Summer Conference on The Academy and the Marketplace
THE ACADEMY AND THE MARKETPLACE
An interdisciplinary conference for academics and others who
care deeply about higher education and the wider society
22-26 July 2009
Elmhurst College , IL
The Society for Values in Higher Education will host a unique interdisciplinary conference on the campus of Elmhurst College, near Chicago, from July 22 to 26, 2009. This year the conference will foster rich conversation among participants in four different contexts.
Morning Groups, which many consider the core of the conference, meet daily for sustained exploration of particular topics. Because the groups serve as small learning communities, participants are encouraged to choose one group for the duration of the conference. Many groups welcome presentation of work-in-progress, and all provide an opportunity for participants to share their professional interests.
2009 morning groups include:
- Celebrating the Search
- Chords of Memory: The Cold War Spy Film
- Forms of Autobiography
- Historical Fiction
- Game-playing pedagogy (see Reacting to the past)
- Popular Culture
- Theorizing Culture: Knowledgeable Consumers and Consuming Knowledge
- Understanding Africa
Afternoon sessions focus on this year’s conference theme: The Academy and the Marketplace. Authors from around the country will present papers for discussion centered on one of two focal points.
The Theory working group will feature presentation and discussion of the following papers:
Working Group no. 1: Theory (Thursday-Saturday, 1:30-3 p.m.)
Thursday, July 23
Introductions
“Organically Related: University and Professional Education,” Timothy J. Cash, University of Illinois.
“Rational Self-Interest, Intellectual Curiosity, and the Capitalist University,” Paul Swift, Bryant University (Rhode Island).
Friday, July 24
“University as Wal Mart: Exploring Consumerism in Academia,” Sandy Watson, University of Tennessee (Chattanooga) and Joe Morris, Dalton State University.
“The Compatibility of a Liberal Education and a Consumer Culture,” Marsha Kobre Anderson, Sierra Nevada College.
Saturday, July 25
“Global Health and Public Private Partnerships: Academic Roles Between Civic Responsibility and the Marketplace,” Anatoly Oleksiyenko, University of Toronto.
“The Bologna Process: ‘Europe of Euro’ vs. ‘Europe of Knowledge,’” Pavel Zgaga, University of Ljubljana (Slovenia)
Wrapping Up
The Pedagogy working group will feature presentation and discussion of the following papers:
Working Group no. 2: Pedagogy (Thursday-Saturday, 3:30-5 p.m.)
Thursday, July 23
Introductions
“Putting Cultural Trends in Context: Teaching Values in Universities,” Mary Beth Yount, Duquesne University.
“Does It Pay? Useful Skills vs. Meaningful Knowledge in Today’s Higher Education,” Michael A. Urban, University of Missouri.
Friday, July 24
“Parables—Study at the Intersection of Epistemologies,” Alan Dagovitz and Rick Elgendy, University of Chicago.
“The New Media Approach to Higher Education,” Danny Paskin, California State University, Long Beach.
Saturday, July 25
“Toward a Pedagogical Praxis that Radicalizes Social Awareness,” Jack A. Hill, Texas Christian University.
Wrapping up
All the papers will be available at the meetings and all attendees are invited to attend one or more of the Working Group sessions to discuss the papers with the authors. The conference will also continue the tradition of offering afternoon groups of a more reflective and personal nature, including poetry sharing, reflections on aging, and discussion of Fulbright experiences.
This year the Society has the honor of hosting game-building and game-playing colleagues (http://www.barnard.edu/reacting/) who are developing pedagogy around engaging and challenging re-enactments of pivotal historical events. The conference will host two games: one game, based on the 1864 awarding of the Copely medal to Charles Darwin, will run concurrently with the Morning Groups, and the second, exploring the trial of Anne Hutchinson is scheduled for afternoons.
Charles Darwin, the Copley Medal, and the Rise of Naturalism, 1862-1864
This game thrusts students into the intellectual ferment of Victorian England just after publication of The Origin of Species. Since its appearance in 1859, Darwin's long awaited treatise in “genetic biology” had received reviews both favorable and damning. Thomas Huxley and Samuel Wilberforce presented arguments for and against the theory in a dramatic and widely publicized face-off at the 1860 meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in Oxford.
Their encounter sparked a vigorous, complex debate that touched on a host of issues and set the stage for the Royal Society’s consideration of whether or not they ought to award Darwin the Copley Medal, their most prestigious prize. While the action takes place in meetings of the Royal Society, Great Britain’s most important scientific body, a parallel and influential public argument smoldered over the nature of science and its relationship to modern life in an industrial society.
The Trial of Anne Hutchinson: Liberty, Law, and Intolerance in Puritan New England
This game recreates one of the most tumultuous and significant episodes in early American history: the struggle between the followers and allies of John Winthrop, Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and those of Anne Hutchinson, a strong-willed and brilliant religious dissenter. The controversy pushed Massachusetts to the brink of collapse and spurred a significant exodus. The puritans who founded Massachusetts were poised between the Middle Ages and the modern world, and in many ways, they helped to bring the modern world into being. The Trial of Anne Hutchinson plunges participants into a religious world that will be unfamiliar to many of them. Yet the puritans’ passionate struggles over how far they could tolerate a diversity of religious opinions in a colony committed to religious unity were part of a larger historical process that led to religious freedom and the modern concept of separation of church and state. Their vehement commitment to their liberties and fears about the many threats these faced were passed down to the American Revolution and beyond.
Frank Donoghue, author and Associate Professor of English at the Ohio State University will give the keynote address.
In his latest work, “The Last Professors: The Corporate University and The Fate of the Humanities”, Frank Donoghue assesses the current state of faculty and the academy in higher education today. The work draws upon years of research and teaching about the Culture Wars in higher education. Professor Donoghue’s address promises to shed significant light on the theme of the conference, clarifying the ways that the corporate mentality in higher education threatens the essential character and purposes of our colleges and universities.
Social interaction
Daily activities include evening music making, shared intergenerational meals, author receptions, social hours, and an auction. These occasions provide opportunities to continue conversations from the morning or afternoon. There’s also plenty of time for meeting participants to explore the local community or, this year, head into Chicago. SVHE encourages attendance of families including children. During the morning there is a Children’s Program for youngsters of all ages—including activities that are fun and educational.
Participants in the Society meetings find them intellectually rewarding and rejuvenating. Please join us.
About SVHE
The Society for Values in Higher Education is a fellowship of educators and other professionals, across disciplines, committed to teaching, learning, and scholarship that nurture ethical, creative, and informed citizens dedicated to the common good. We work to strengthen integrity, diversity, social justice, and civic responsibility in higher education and the wider society.