At a time when universities are being defunded by governments and vilified by ultra-conservative pundits, defining their value has never been more urgent
For decades, efforts to quantify the value of universities in dollars and cents led to the corporatization of institutions that are meant to serve their students and society by creating knowledge and teaching—not by turning a profit. Now more than ever, the role of the university in advancing discovery, democracy, equity, and in contributing to its students’ success is under siege and needs to be defended.
Knowledge Under Siege picks up where Spooner and McNinch’s Dissident Knowledge in Higher Education left off and analyzes today’s volatile higher education landscape—one where hostility towards the academy is a growing trend across the globe. Bringing together leading international voices, including Gloria Ladson-Billings, Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Christopher Newfield, Kevin Kumashiro, and many others, the book considers how universities are facing unprecedented threats that include defunding, criticism of and the dismantling of initiatives to diversify the academy, academic gag orders, and efforts to undermine tenure and academic freedom. It asks how institutions can resist these incursions while working towards becoming engines of social mobility for a diverse student body (not merely serving the most privileged) and graduating critical thinkers who aspire to build a better world.
There is a consensus in higher education that universities must remain autonomous so that our societies can better understand both our history and our rapidly changing world. Knowledge Under Siege is a call to action to fight for our institutions and make them self-reflexive spaces where truth and learning continue to thrive.
Table of Contents:
Foreword • Gloria Ladson-Billing
Preface • Marc Spooner and James McNinch
Introduction: A Renewed Hope • Marc Spooner and James McNinch
SECTION ONE. UNIVERSITY AND ITS ROLES
What are Universities For? • Jonathan R. Cole
Universities are Playspaces • Whitney Blaisdell
Universities in a Democratic Society • Joel Westheimer
SECTION TWO. CRITICAL UNIVERSITY STUDIES
Relations of Power in Worldwide University Science • Simon Marginson
For What and For Whom Are Universities? • Consuelo Chapela
From Neoliberalism to Authoritarianism: Universities, Metrics, Regulation and Surrender to Governmental Control • Liz Morrish
Resistance and Redirection in the Managerial University • Peter S. McInnis
SECTION THREE. RE-FRAMING THE RESPONSIVE UNIVERSITY
Higher Education and Academics Must “Step Up” • Kevin K. Kumashiro
Reimagining the Pedagogy of Truth • Sheila Cote-Meek
Complicities, Margins, Resistance: Colleges, Plantations and Bearing Witness • Piya Chatterjee
When Should Universities Take a Stand? • Shannon Dea
SECTION FOUR. IMAGINING OUR COLLECTIVE FUTURE AND THE FUTURE OF UNIVERSITIES
The University’s Four Futures; or, the Real Humanities Crisis and its Cures • Christopher Newfield
Is Hope Practical? Re-making Universities in an Era of Climate Crisis • Tom Sperlinger
Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi: What Are Universities For • Linda Tuhiwai Smith
sîpâ waskwâhk (underneath the birch tree): ê-iskocêsihkêhk (creating sparks for a fire)—The Need for Indigenous Knowledge in Universities • Tammy Ratt
Conclusion: A Call to Hope • James McNinch and Marc Spooner
Afterword: The Future of Universities, Knowledge, and Democracies • Malinda S. Smith
Index
About the Author :
Marc Spooner is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Regina. His research interests include audit culture, academic freedom, the effects of neoliberalization and corporatization on higher education, social justice, activism, and participatory democracy.
James McNinch is professor emeritus and former dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Regina. His research and publications have focused on teaching and learning in higher education, gender and sexual diversity, racism and white privilege, and the social construction of masculinity.
Review :
“Around the world, universities are key battlegrounds in the fight against fascism. But as the contributors to this volume understand, we have to do more than aspire for a restoration of the previous, broken academic status quo. This expansive and insightful collection helps clarify the stakes of the current crisis and its antecedents while also exploring possible solutions and more life and learning affirming futures.”
"Lively and timely, the chapters in this volume remind that universities are worthwhile places for learning, meaning-making and struggle, especially to confront fascism and settler colonialism. But if they can’t do this, we need to create spaces that can."
"This book will lift your spirits and remind you that the university remains a central place for debate and open dialogue critical for any democracy worth the name.”
“Knowledge Under Siege confronts the escalating attacks on universities—defunding, censorship, and the corporatization of learning—and shows why defending higher education is essential to democracy itself. Far from being businesses, universities are vital public institutions where truth is pursued, dissent is fostered, and hope is kept alive. This book is a call to protect the university as a space of critical inquiry, civic courage, justice, and imagination at a moment when its very future hangs in the balance.”
“A rigorous, urgent call to reframe higher education as a public good worth defending and reimagining.”
“Knowledge Under Siege tells the eye-opening story of the many ways universities in Canada and around the world are in serious trouble. From the impact of neo-liberalism to the authoritarian assault on expertise and knowledge, the contributors make a compelling case for what’s gone wrong and issue an urgent call for collective action to reimagine and remake universities that serve the common good.”
“Totalitarian rule is on the rise, and education is not some random collateral damage—it’s an early and fundamental target. Those of us resisting the siege must grasp the dimensions of the crisis we’re facing—its roots and its reach, its power and also its vulnerabilities. Marc Spooner and James McNinch have assembled an esteemed group of scholars, activists, and organizers who can help us do just that. They not only illuminate the crisis, but they also help us plot a path forward. This is an essential text for this fierce and urgent moment.”
"With piercing clarity and a chorus of urgent voices—students, scholars, resisters, and visionaries—Knowledge Under Siege charts the peril and promise of higher education in a world on edge. It demands we ask: What is the university for? Who does it serve? What truths will it dare to speak? And most critically—will we fight for it, or let it fall?”
