Conferencia: A University for the People.

Prof. Hans Schildermanns (Universidad de Viena)

Abstract

This presentation discusses my research project on political imaginaries of higher education and ideas of the university. More particularly, I am interested in the ways in which the university has been instrumentalized to address social problems and to realize specific imaginations of the future. The background of my project are discussions about the alleged emergence of a global university, which is predicated on a Eurocentric narration of the history of higher education in terms of models (Humboldtian, Napoleonic, Oxbridgean). To counter this narration, I have investigated three case studies of reform movements in non-European contexts in the 20th century that each have enacted a different imagination of the university, in close connection to the needs of the people as perceived in political circles. The case studies concern the land-grant movement in the United States of America during the progressive era (1890–1925), the reforma universitaria in Argentina from its inception until its demise under peronism (1918–1953), and correspondence tuition at the ‘university for all’ in South Africa under apartheid until transformation (1945–1997). My aim is to analyze the relation between university reform and broader social, political and cultural trends and developments, with particular attention for the articulation of visions of the future. I will discuss the broader project, sources I intend to use as well as preliminary ideas, findings, thoughts, and insights. 

 Biography

Hans Schildermans is a Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Education at University of Vienna. He is currently working on a research project, titled A University for the People. Colonial Frictions, Sociotechnical Imaginaries and the Creation of the Future. He is the author of Experiments in Decolonizing the University. Towards an Ecology of Study (Bloomsbury, 2021). He is interested in the history and philosophy of higher education, critical university studies, and the intellectual history of educational reasoning.