Power and the Academy
The 8th Conference of the Discourse, Power, Resistance Series6-8 April 2009Geoffrey Manton Conference Centre
Manchester Metropolitan University , UK
Keynote speakers:
Zygmunt Bauman
Cameron McCarthy
What is the relationship between power and the academy? Academics are
effectively government employees, told what to do and how to do it. In
research they are told what matters and what does not, and this tells them
what they will get research funding for and what they won’t; and they
are told what methods to use – what will count as evidence and what
won’t. In teaching they are told what to teach and what not to teach,
how to teach it and how to assess it. Teachers and learners tick boxes,
performing as trainers and trainees with constant reference to the demands
of the workplace, and subject to a Byzantine apparatus of monitoring and
surveillance. If they transgress, punishment follows, normally in the form
of the withdrawal of funding.
Please submit ABSTRACTS to: dpr@mmu.ac.uk
