Call for Contributions : Interdisciplinarity and the New University

From Greece and Barcelona, to the United States and the United Kingdom, to Puerto Rico and beyond, students have been showing their dissatisfaction with educational institutions around the globe through occupations, non-violent protests, and sit-ins, recalling an earlier era of student unrest. Although students in these locations often protest conditions specific to their own situations, many also recognize the interconnectedness of these struggles against an increasingly homogenized global educational system, one which places profit over intellectual pursuit and privatization over student satisfaction.

The Graduate Journal of Social Science (GJSS) welcomes contributions for its June 2011 issue on the effects of the “new university” structure from students and early-career scholars who are struggling with these issues today. Topics include, but are not limited to:

  • How are shifts in funding and education policy changing the types of projects getting funded and the types of research that can be conducted?
  • How have recent funding cuts affected certain disciplines compared to others?
  • What happens to research that doesn't produce measurable "results" or "impacts" in this new climate?
  • How does the buzzword “interdisciplinarity” itself fit into the picture?
  • Examinations of methods and tactics taken during various student-led actions, including responses by administrations, other members of the student body, and by the media at large.
  • Are “new” tactics such as social networking tools like Twitter and Facebook more effective than the “old” tactics of sit-ins and university take-overs?
  • Critical reflections (or experiences) of how these new and evolving circumstances can be approached methodologically.
  • What different research questions emerge, and what kind of methods are most suited to them? What do these offer, add or change from theories and methodologies associated to social movements, the meaning of “the public”, neo-liberal privatization of urban spaces or social services, globalization …?
  • Do “new university” structures summon a distinct appreciation for addressing these processes?