A Symposium Annenberg School for Communication University of Pennsylvania MAKING THE UNIVERSITY MATTER DECEMBER 4-5, 2009 Presented by The Scholars Program in Culture and Communication Speakers Ien Ang Risto Kunelius Visiting Scholar SummerCulture Sponsor Spring 2006 Finland 2008 S. Elizabeth Bird Don Mitchell MAKING THE Visiting Scholar Visiting Scholar Fall 2007 Spring 2008 UNIVERSITY MATTER Dominic Boyer Mark Anthony Neal Guest Lecturer Visiting Scholar Fall 2007 Fall 2008 Making the University Matter Michael Bromley Kaarle Nordenstreng investigates how academics situate SummerCulture Sponsor SummerCulture Sponsor themselves simultaneously in the Australia 2009 Finland 2008 university and the world, and how Nick Couldry Radhika Parameswaran doing so affects the viability of the Visiting Scholar Visiting Scholar university setting. The university Fall 2008 Spring 2009 stands at the intersection of two sets of interests, needing to be at one Michael X. Delli Carpini Jeff Pooley with the world while aspiring to stand ASC Faculty Panelist Visiting Scholar apart from it. In an era that promises John Nguyet Erni Spring 2009 intensified political instability, growing Visiting Scholar Richard Cullen Rath administrative pressures, dwindling Spring 2008 Visiting Scholar economic returns and questions about economic viability, lower Isabel Capeloa Gil Fall 2009 enrollments and shrinking programs, can the university continue SummerCulture Sponsor Paddy Scannell to matter into the future? And if so, in which way? What will help Portugal 2007 Guest Lecturer it survive as an honest broker? What are the mechanisms for Spring 2009 ensuring its independent voice? This two-day symposium considers Larry Gross a multiplicity of answers from across the curriculum on making the Guest Speaker Michael Schudson university matter, including critical scholarship, interdisciplinarity, Fall 2008 Guest Speaker curricular blends of the humanities and social sciences, practical Larry Grossberg Fall 2006 training and policy work. Guest Lecturer Katherine Sender Spring 2007 ASC Faculty Panelist John Hartley Slavko Splichal Images courtesy of University Archives and Records Center SummerCulture Sponsor Visiting Scholar Australia 2009 Spring 2006 Kathleen Hall Jamieson Paula Treichler ASC Faculty Panelist Guest Lecturer Contents Elizabeth Jelin Fall 2005 SummerCulture Sponsor Robin Wagner-Pacifici Speakers ..................................................................................................... 1 Argentina 2005 Visiting Scholar Spring 2007 Program Elihu Katz ASC Faculty Panelist Barbie Zelizer DAY ONE – DECEMBER 4, 2009 ................................................... 2 Marwan Kraidy Director of the Scholars Program in Culture and Communication DAY TWO – DECEMBER 5, 2009 .................................................. 3 Visiting Scholar Spring 2007 Abstracts ................................................................................................... 4 Biographies..............................................................................................10 MAKING THE UNIVERSITY MATTER | 1 Program DECEMBER 4, 2009 DECEMBER 5, 2009 9:15 a.m. ...............................................Coffee and Breakfast 9:00 a.m. ............................................ Coffee and Breakfast 9:45 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. .............. Introduction by Michael X. Delli Carpini 9:30 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. .......................................... Panel One and Barbie Zelizer Keeping the University Relevant 10:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. ............................................ Panel One How can the pedagogical, educational and community-based goals and functions of the university reflect a “real world” focus? Models of Intellectual Engagement How do alternative models of intellectual engagement forefront certain presumptions Moderator: Brittany Griebling, ASC Ph.D. Candidate Panelists: Larry Gross about what matters in the university, in which ways and for whom? Michael Schudson Moderator: Michael Serazio, ASC Ph.D. Candidate Robin Wagner-Pacifici Panelists: S. Elizabeth Bird 10:45 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. ............................. Morning Refreshments Isabel Capeloa Gil Marwan Kraidy 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. .......................................... Panel Two 11:15 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. ................................ Morning Refreshments Technology and Institutionalization 11:30 a.m. – 12:45 p.m. ............................................ Panel Two What do institutional and technological parameters look like in the evolving academic environment? Intellectuals and the Public Sphere Moderator: Deborah Lubken, ASC Ph.D. Candidate How do publicity and the positioning of intellectual critique and commentary nourish Panelists: Dominic Boyer public thought? John Hartley Moderators: Susan Berube and Rocio Nunez, ASC Ph.D. Candidates Richard Cullen Rath Panelists: Ien Ang Paula Treichler Michael Bromley 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. ................................................. Lunch Mark Anthony Neal Slavko Splichal 1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. ........................................... Panel Three 12:45 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. ................................................ Lunch Communication and the Viability of the University 2:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. ........................................... Panel Three What can communication offer the university and how can its study help us rethink the university’s future viability? Economies of Knowledge Moderator: Adrienne Shaw, ASC Ph.D. Candidate Against current moves toward the marketability of knowledge, how do economic Panelists: Kaarle Nordenstreng landscapes structure, facilitate and undermine the creation, acquisition, sharing and Radhika Parameswaran distribution of knowledge? Jeff Pooley Paddy Scannell Moderator: Mario Rodriguez, ASC Ph.D. Candidate Panelists: Nick Couldry 3:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. ............................ Afternoon Refreshments Risto Kunelius 3:15 p.m. – 4:45 p.m. ........................................... Panel Four Don Mitchell Pondering the University’s Future 3:15 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. ............................... Afternoon Refreshments How does our collective knowledge help us move forward? 3:30 p.m. – 4:45 p.m. ............................................ Panel Four Moderator: Angela Lee, ASC Ph.D. Candidate Having a Political Voice Panelists: Michael X. Delli Carpini Which roles, functions and meanings emerge from the struggle for academics to have a Kathleen Hall Jamieson political voice? Elihu Katz Katherine Sender Moderator: Keren Tenenboim-Weinblatt, ASC Ph.D. Candidate 4:45 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. ..............................Closing by Barbie Zelizer Panelists: John Nguyet Erni Larry Grossberg 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m................................................. Dinner Elizabeth Jelin 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.............................................. Reception 2 | MAKING THE UNIVERSITY MATTER MAKING THE UNIVERSITY MATTER | 3 Abstracts Ien Ang Dominic Boyer Nick Couldry Isabel Capeloa Gil Making Art Matter Universities and the Future of Post-Neoliberal Academic Values: Monks, Managers and Celebrities: Academic Expertise in the Era of Notes from the UK Higher Education Southern Singularities and the Ivory tower scholars are often accused of Digital Information Sector European University disengagement from society. The increasing interest in interdisciplinary collaboration There is scarcely a dimension of academic life This paper draws in part on my recently com- The European ‘fortress university’ is in crisis, and community partnerships is a response that has not been profoundly impacted by pleted book which defends ‘voice’ as a value torn between the traditional enclosed model to this accusation. But what are the implica- digital information technology over the past which might be developed in response to of the monastery-university, the functional- tions of this 'collaborative turn' for the nature quarter century. From research to publish- neoliberalism’s absolute prioritization of mar- ist managerial model and the obsession with of knowledge and the role of academics as ing to advising to teaching to administra- ket functioning over other priorities. While higher education rankings and celebrity knowledge producers? Similar apprehensions tion, digital tools have enabled new ways of neoliberal doctrine is certainly more under academics. Even the signing of the Bologna exist in the world of contemporary art. To generating, communicating and archiving challenge than before the 2008 economic and Declaration in June 1999, aimed at establish- overcome the (alleged) disconnect of art from academic knowledge and disabled old ones. financial crisis, what values might super- ing a “European Higher Education Area” by society artists today are involved in their own Universities thus find themselves in a phase of sede neoliberal values (and constitute what 2010, signals a utopian project, a model for a forms of 'collaborative turn'. This collabora- significant institutional transformation. Some Wendy Brown calls a ‘counter-rationality’ university in-becoming, that threatens to turn tive turn in contemporary art exists in an of the changes are well-known, others more to neoliberal rationality) remains uncertain. into a functionalist quagmire. This presenta- uneasy relationship with the institution of subterranean. Some seem obviously positive, Critical scholarly practice should, I contend, tion discusses the role of these clashing aca- the art museum: the latter is both an obstacle others more ambivalent and even dangerous