What purpose should the university serve? What are the true callings of academics? In Academic Callings, prominent Canadian scholars tackle these big questions and provide a timely survey of the state of the Canadian university. With so much current interest in the university's role in the economy, and so much emphasis on research tied to funding opportunities, this volume seeks to revive the idea of the university as it has been and could be again: a democratic institution committed to advancing critical thought and serving the public interest.
With contributions from diverse disciplines — Classics to biology, nursing to sociology — Academic Callings aims to provoke a wide-ranging conversation, one that concerns everyone, whether as members of academic communities or as citizens.
Contributors include Joel Bakan, George Sefa Dei, Barbara Godard, Paul Hamel, Dorothy Smith, Nasrin Rahimieh, Andrew Wernick, and more than twenty others.
PrefaceIntroduction: Academic Callings and the Past, Present, and Future of the Canadian University – Janice Newson and Claire PolsterPart 1: Against All Reason: Wake-up CallsChapter 1: Are We Losing Our Minds? Unreason in Canadian Universities Today – Claire PolsterChapter 2: Beyond Market Self-serving: Recovering the Academy’s Vocation – John McMurtryChapter 3: The Risk of Critique: Voices across the Generations – Barbara GodardChapter 4: We Are Saying Too Much … and Not Enough – Karen RudieChapter 5: A Requiem for Fundamental Biology – Arthur ForerChapter 6: Idea and Reality: The University or the Universities – John P. ValleauPart 2: Taking Stock of Personal and Institutional Histories: Calls to AccountChapter 7: A Brief Memoir from the Trenches – Andrew WernickChapter 8: A Career against the Grain: An Academic Callings Interview – Dorothy SmithChapter 9: Living through Revolutionary and Reactionary Times – in the Wrong Order – Roberta HamiltonChapter 10: Force without Reason – Gordon ShrimptonChapter 11: Two Hours Left and Nothing to Say – Bruce CurtisChapter 12: From the Personal to the Political: Some Reflections and Hopes – Jennie HornostyPart 3: Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Calls to Administrative LeadershipChapter 13: Yesterday and Today: Universities and the Growth of the Market Model – Howard WoodhouseChapter 14: A Postcard from the Belly of the Beast – Janice RistockChapter 15: How Can One Be Persian in the Canadian Academy? – Nasrin RahimiehChapter 16: The Paradoxes of Academic Administration – Mary Ellen PurkisPart 4: Making Space: Calls to Open PathsChapter 17: Academic Activism and Nomadic Paths – Jamie MagnussonChapter 18: Transforming the University from an Aboriginal Perspective – Jo-ann ArchibaldChapter 19: Engaging Race, Anti-racism, and Equity Issues in the Academy: A Personal Odyssey – George J. Sefa DeiChapter 20: Feminists in Academe: From Outsiders to Insiders? – Joan SangsterChapter 21: An Ode to Wisdom: Got, Don’t Got, Borrowed, and Sought – Elizabeth (Bessa) WhitmoreChapter 22: The University and Its Political Economy: An Academic Callings Interview – Joel BakanPart 5: Re/generating Publics: Calls to CollectivityChapter 23: Exploits in the Undercommons – Alison HearnsChapter 24: Academic Freedom, Institutional Autonomy, and the Co-operative University – Len FindlayChapter 25: The University Public and Its Enemies – Frank CunninghamChapter 26: Reflections on Teaching and Learning – Margaret-Ann ArmourChapter 27: Offside: Playing Hockey at the University of Saskatchewan – Glenis JoyceChapter 28: Making the University Work for Communities – Barbara NeisChapter 29: Recovering the University as a Collective Project – Janice NewsonAbout the Authors
Biography
Janice Newson is Professor Emerita in the Department of Sociology at York University.
Claire Polster is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Social Studies at the University of Regina.
"Editors Janice Newson and Claire Polster have achieved a rare and delicate balance in their editorial direction, where personal narratives, rather than breaking up or obscuring the larger picture, speak to the complexity,the tensions, and the shifting ideals extant in the Canadian university."— Canadian Journal of Communications
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