| FYI, Apologies for crossposting. rb
Begin forwarded message: > *A Conference on Struggles Within and Beyond the Neoliberal University*
> *April 27-29, 2012*
> *Toronto, Ontario*
>
> The university belongs to us, those who teach, learn, research, counsel,
> clean, and create community. Together we can and do make the university
> work.
>
> But today this university is in crisis. The neoliberal restructuring of
> post-secondary education seeks to further embed market logic and
> corporate-style management into the academy, killing consultation, autonomy
> and collective decision-making. The salaries of university presidents and
> the ranks of administrators swell, but the people the university is
> supposed to serve — students — are offered assembly-line education as class
> sizes grow, faculty is over-worked, and teaching positions become
> increasingly precarious. International students and scholars seeking
> post-secondary or graduate education are treated as cash cows rather than
> as people who might contribute to both research and society. Debt-burdened
> students are seen as captive markets by administrators, while faculty is
> encouraged to leverage public funds for private research on behalf of
> corporate sponsors.
>
> The attack on what remains of public education has been total. Over the
> last year we have witnessed the closure of humanities programmes, further
> tuition hikes, the replacement of financial support with loans, union
> lockouts, and the accelerated development of private, for-profit
> universities. Yet at the same time we have seen growing waves of struggle
> against these incursions, as students, staff and faculty in Europe, Latin
> America, and across the Middle East organize, occupy and resist the
> transformation.
>
> Our struggles are not limited to the university, but are a part of the
> widespread resistance against the neoliberal market logic subsuming all
> sectors of our society. The university is a key battleground in this
> struggle, and a point of conjuncture for the various labour, economic and
> social justice struggles that face all of us – workers and students alike.
> Crucially, these struggles occur on stolen indigenous lands and manifest
> through colonialism, racism, sexism, homophobia, ablism and other forms of
> oppression that hurt and divide us and that shape what sorts of knowledge
> are considered valuable.
>
> We cannot cede the ideal of the university as a site for struggle and
> debate. We cannot permit the dissolution of proliferating research, ideas
> and innovations free from the demands and control of the market. We cannot
> watch as universities are degraded into a mere site for corporate or
> state-sponsored research and marketing. The time to mobilize is now!
>
> This conference will connect and chart the varied struggles against
> neoliberal restructuring of the university in North America and beyond. We
> envision a series of debriefings on experiences of resistance, the creation
> of a cartography of local and global struggles, and a strategizing session
> for students, teachers, workers and activists. We aim to develop a North
> American network of struggles.
>
> We encourage presentations that raise questions and generate dialogue among
> the rest of the participants. Ideally, submissions will indicate the
> specific outcomes they hope will emerge from the discussion. We encourage
> participation from those with first-hand experience of these crises, and
> those engaged in the fight for free and public post-secondary education,
> especially student groups and trade unions.
>
> For a better future for all – join us!
>
> POSSIBLE THEMES:
>
> - mapping the terrain of campus struggle in Canada and North America
> - connecting with and learning from global struggles
> - waged and unwaged labour in the university
> - abolition of student debt
> - the university and the occupy movement
> - the cultural politics of the neoliberal university
> - the death of the humanities
> - militarization of the university
> - intersections of university struggles other fights against oppression
> - environmental justice
> - beyond public education
> - radical pedagogy
> - academic freedom
> - the politics of research funding
> - the economics of the neoliberal university
> - university and student governance
> - the undergraduate experience of neoliberalism
> - alternative/free/autonomous universities
> - organizing the education factory
> - the suppression of on-campus dissent and organization
>
> Please email submissions to universityisours@gmail.com by January 16th.
> Also,if you would like to attend the conference, please RSVP to the same
> address so organizers can plan for numbers.
>
> This conference is organized by the edu-factory collective in collaboration
> with the University of Toronto General Assembly.
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