STS and Universities - II

Abstract

Universities now occupy a strategic place in the so-called knowledge society or information-based political economy, supplying a rapidly growing demand for new kinds of expertise in nearly all areas of modern life, especially in wealthy countries. At the same time, universities are under considerable pressure to adapt to global ideas and practices about neo-liberalism and new public management, along with the quest for ‘excellence’ and ‘innovation’ with respect to teaching, research, and outreach. Consequently, universities increasingly are expected to make themselves accountable and auditable by producing quantitative information on certain activities that enable the formation of metrics, rankings, and other new forms of control, including the management of branding, incomes, and outcomes. What is counted then counts, defining new criteria for evaluating admission, hiring, advancement, worthy subjects of inquiry, and modes of circulating knowledge. STS has considerable potential to study universities as political economic actors, institutions, enterprises, and places of work, study, and the making of knowledge. We invite contributions that address how universities have engaged with these changing political economies of research and higher education. Papers that address how these demands are reshaping the interrelationship between research and teaching, departmental cultures, academic life, and intersectional issues in universities are also welcome.

Chair

• Knut H Sørensen, NTNU, Dept. of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture

Individual Presentations

• “Have You Achieved Robot Status Yet?”: Predictive Analytics, Universities, and the Making of Student Subjectivities - Madisson Whitman, Purdue University

• The Master’s Tools: Neoliberal Knowledge Governance through Algorithms - Sharon Traweek, UCLA

• Measured Success: Evaluators as Insiders, Outsiders, and Knowledge Producers - Elisa Martinez, University of Massachusetts; Laurel Smith-Doerr, University of Massachusetts; Tim Sacco, University Of Massachusetts Amherst

• Questioning Transdisciplinarity in the Contemporary Research University - Kari Zacharias, Concordia University

• Trends, Profits, and Prophetic Expertise: Producing and Assessing Value in the Neoliberal University - Christo Sims, University of California, San Diego

Session Organizers

• Knut H Sørensen, NTNU, Dept. of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture

• Sharon Traweek, UCLA