THE FUTURE OF THE PUBLIC UNIVERSITY

presents

THE FUTURE OF THE PUBLIC UNIVERSITY

Christopher Newfield, in Conversation with Carol Christ
Moderated by Wendy Brown

Sibley Auditorium, 2-4p.m., February 1st. 2017. Open to all.

The public university is facing unprecedented challenges: mounting budgetary pressures and a more hostile political climate. Two distinguished commentators will discuss the path the public university has taken so far, and possible roads ahead.

Christopher Newfield is Professor of Literature and American Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Much of his research is in Critical University Studies; his publications include Ivy and Industry: Business and the Making of the American University, 1880-1980 (2003) and Unmaking the Public University: The Forty-Year Assault on the Middle Class (2008). His most recent book, The Great Mistake: How We Wrecked Public Universities and How We Can Fix Them, focuses on the post-2008 struggles of public universities to rebuild their social mission.

Carol Christ is the Interim Executive Vice-Chancellor and Provost of the University of California, Berkeley. After an earlier period as EVCP (1994-1999), she was the 10thPresident of Smith College (2002-2013) and, on returning to Berkeley, she became the head of Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education. A Professor of English specializing in Victorian literature, she is Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.


On the same day BERKELEY SOCIOLOGY FORUM and THE BERKELEY FACULTY ASSOCIATION will co-sponsor an author-meets-critics panel. Chris Newfield will present his new book, The Great Mistake: How We Wrecked Public Universities and How We Can Fix Them with responses from Professors Kim Voss (Department of Sociology), Henry Brady (Goldman School of Public Policy and Department of Political Science) and Prudence Carter (Graduate School of Education). February 1, 2017, Barrows 402, 5-7.30p.m.