Advancing the Liberatory Public Good: Considerations for Institutional Higher Education and Those Who Study It

• In Event: Student Communities and Political Engagement

Abstract

This conceptual article examines the existing body of literature on the public good, highlighting oversights legitimized by the field of higher education and the subsequent shaping of a dominant public good narrative. We present critical frames and critiques from within and beyond the field to suggest a new direction for public good scholarship concerned with advancing liberation that moves away from periodization, race neutrality, whiteness, democratic idealism, and neoliberalism's prevalence as a guiding analytical framework. We propose a new direction for institutional higher education public good practices and encourage higher education scholars to add more depth, complexity, and profound purpose to their scholarly contributions.

Author

• Jordan N. Harper, Morgan State University