Experiments in Decolonizing the University: Towards an Ecology of Study

Description

The book addresses the need to reconsider the relation between university and society, a debate that has been going on from the Middle Ages to Kant, Humboldt, Newman, and beyond. Hans Schildermans builds on the philosophy and theory of higher education, drawing on the work of John Dewey, Donna Haraway, William James, Bruno Latour, Martin Savransky, Isabelle Stengers and Alfred North Whitehead. In relation to the study practices of the Palestinian experimental university 'Campus in Camps', he develops the concept of an ecology of study to approach the relation between university and society from a new angle. The book avoids the two positions that are traditionally defended, namely the idea of the autonomous university where research and teaching are performed 'in freedom and solitude' on the one hand, and the capitalized university that produces useful knowledge on the other hand. Schildermans emphasizes the importance of study practices as a site of resistance against current neoliberal and capitalist reforms of the university and to envisage a different future for the university. The book will appeal to activists, critical academics and those interested in the fate of higher education today. The eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 licence on www.bloomsburycollections.com.

Hans Schildermans is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Center for Foundations of Education at the University of Vienna, Austria.

The book's strength is its use of philosophy of science to rethink what is one of the largest failed institutions of our times ... [T]his book is a fascinating and useful read for anyone seriously interested in decolonizing the university, particularly from a philosophical and/or practice perspective. * Journal of Palestine Studies * The contemporary university is in ruins. Any probable future seems bleak. Yet by asking us to pay attention to the ecologies of study of those who have learned how to learn anew amidst the ruins, Schildermans' wonderfully speculative book renders us alive to the possibility of composing the University otherwise in spite of all! * Martin Savransky, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK * Experiments come alive through practices, and practices are made into a pedagogy of study through resistance, reclaiming and relay. This is the proposition that orients Hans Schildermans' Experiments in Decolonizing the University, a committed process philosophical approach to modes of study that are decolonial in their call for other ways of living and learning. Reclaiming the university as an ecology of study, Schildermans' spirited call to "stay with the trouble" asks that we imagine "another mode of inhabiting," surpassing the limits of the current university in ruins. * Erin Manning, Professor in the Faculty of Fine Arts, Concordia University, Canada * Universities in ruins, students in debts, classes on Zoom, precariousness across the board: there is much to lament in today's academic institutions. And yet, beyond victimization and normalization, beyond ideas and administration, there is much to rejoice in the common practices of study that are constantly reinvented against all odds. From Bologna in the Middle Ages to present-day Palestine, from the undercommons of US campuses to the Improvised Educational Devices of refugee camps, Hans Schildermans relays and reassembles Whitehead, Stengers, Haraway, Harney and Moten, methodically to sketch out a multisecular survey of our collective intelligence, providing us with a most useful toolkit and a most precious roadmap towards an ecology of study that is always already there, always to be reclaimed. Clear and succinct, pragmatic and reflexive, rigorous and inventive, free of polemics as well as of complaints, hitting a perfect balance between principles and examples, this most generous and welcoming book blows an inspiring breath of fresh air on all those of us who feel locked-down in the colonization of the university. * Yves Citton, Professor in Literature and Media, University Paris 8, France, and co-editor of Journal Multitudes * The University is in ruins; long live the University! Let's make it a place of study, of experimentation in the art of living together, of careful invention, of collective renewal. For all who would join in reclaiming the University for the future, Hans Schildermans is a generous and inspiring guide. * Tim Ingold, Professor Emeritus of Social Anthropology, University of Aberdeen, UK * Mobilizing practice, study, and ecology as its key concepts, Hans Schildermans' book experiments with new possibilities of the university as an ecology of study practice beyond the grips of capitalism and idealism. It is a magical "zigzag movement" in movement and a beautiful story in re-telling. * Weili Zhao, Assistant Professor, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong *