Universities and the humanities,then and now |
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| Authors: | SunHee Kim Gertz |
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| Institution: | Director of Graduate Studies in English, English Department, Clark University, Worcester, MA USA |
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| Abstract: | Over the centuries, universities have functioned as gatekeepers and treasurers of received knowledge, while concomitantly furthering innovative contributions to society. Yet, when cultivating research ‘silos’, universities encourage scholars to explore in seeming isolation. Out of such tensions, universities have supported, and will continue to pursue, different kinds of, and approaches to, furthering knowledge and creativity. In the past, the humanities had been central to this mission. More recently, however, the efficient and global acceleration of consumer-oriented ‘knowledge production and consumption’ seems to form a critical factor upsetting the centrality of the humanities in university cultures. In this context, exploring the academic communities of the late middle ages proves to be a useful exercise. Forged in strong relationships with ecclesiastical and secular powers, mediaeval universities nonetheless share critical concerns with today’s academic institutions; thus, they too were constrained by the need to attract and exact excellence, to navigate relationships with their immediate environs, and to train professionals, who could ensure continuity in academic communities, the church, and the imperial courts. In other words, mediaeval universities also experienced polarising tensions that reveal consonances between then and now and that can gloss today’s acceleration driving the consumer model of knowledge production and consumption, while also encouraging scholars to form more explicit links to external constituencies. |
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| Keywords: | Humanities medieval universities town and gown rankings academic |
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