LPU Social Sciences and Languages’ Post

I am delighted to share the news of my first publication titled 'Can the University Speak?' in Entremons UPF Journal of World History, tackling the decolonization of higher education. In this paper, I am delving into the one-sided knowledge production in academia by integrating insights from Homi Bhabha and Gayatri Spivak, exploring the flaws stemming from mimicking Western models. https://lnkd.in/gVPsERnm

The Assessment and Feedback Principles and Priorities were approved for implementation in August 2022, and since then Schools The University of Edinburgh have been challenged to update their assessment strategies in multiple ways. Dr Emily Taylor describes how colleagues are supporting this activity in the largest college in the university:  Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CAHSS). This is based on three key implementation approaches: 1. Listen to our students 2. Establish standards, and honour autonomy 3. Understand our Schools Read more in the link below #assessment #teachingmatters

Morgan State University's President Dr. Wilson Speaks on Day 1 of the Fall 2024 Faculty Institute. What a wonderful and promising academic year for this Baltimore, Maryland-base HBCU. Yes, it's time to climb. I missed this Fall Fac Institute. I was Morgan's face at the XXVth World Congress of Philosophy (WCP)on the theme, "Philosophy Across Boundaries." La Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, 1-8 August 2024. I presented a paper titled, "OBAMANOMICS AND FRANCISCONOMICS: Reflections on President Obama's and Pope Francis' S.O.S. Call for Poverty Alleviation and Green Economy." More than five thousand scholars from more than 100 countries were in attendance. The WCP takes place every five years. It is organized by Federation Internationale des Societes Philosophiques (FISP). This was my fifth participation in WCP after Beijing 2018, Athens 2013, Seoul 2008, and Boston 1998. Below is a link to a Press release that I issued at the end of the Congress. It's titled, "OBAMANOMICS AND FRANCISCONOMICS: Morgan State University's Philosopher Outsources His Award-Winning Book to Rome's World Congress of Philosophy." https://lnkd.in/e_ukep7W. Cheers! #zekehgbotokuma #ObamanomicsandFrancisconomics #Cosmoportism

DEN is back looking for your submissions to our seventh International Student Conference at the University of Westminster. Looking at how we can collectively build and shape a better today, requires us to reflect on the past and the actions taken to tackle the global challenges present. We are open to students from universities, colleges, and schools to participate. Contributions from different disciplines are more than welcome to submit an abstract, but please be aware, that there will be greater focus on International Relation concepts and broader Social Science studies. If you would like more information, please reach out to us or email Farhang to submit your abstract. #DEN #universityofwestminster #academicconference #politics #IR #conference

🚨 New article alert! 🚨 More of a review/historical lens here 🙌 Another chapter from my PhD published. To contextualise my research, I reviewed the History of Australian Higher Education, with an emphasis on considering the impact of the higher education system’s operations on academics, and how it has perpetuated the influence of colonialism and imperialism on the shaping of scientific knowledge and practices throughout history. It's open access too, so feel free to have a read! 😊 #academia #history #highereducation #review #research #article

What’s Wrong with Our Universities with Steven Pinker; "Are our higher education institutions still nurturing true intellectual diversity? Our guest today is Steven Pinker, a cognitive scientist at Harvard, and today, we'll be exploring the growing concerns within higher ed that institutions are turning into echo chambers, stifling dissent and censoring certain perspectives. In this thought-provoking episode, we'll be discovering the challenges to academic freedom in the era of cancel culture. We'll explore how questioning a consensus can now come at a cost, impacting the pursuit of truth within academic institutions. We'll also uncover the story of the Council for Academic Freedom at Harvard, which was formed to combat these challenges. Join us as we delve into policies protecting free speech, and the vital role of civil discourse in the academic community. Together, we'll navigate the complex landscape of universities, grappling with the delicate balance between common knowledge and the suppression of dissenting opinions."; Heterodox Out Loud with John Tomasi: https://lnkd.in/eVDsJj4p

Colbeck and Wharton Michael (2006) discuss using public scholarship as a central organizing concept for integrating the domains of faculty work. They provide several definitions of public scholarship and a history of the categorization and evaluation of faculty work (e.g., teaching, service, research) and how this has shaped faculty effort. They propose re-integrating these domains to more accurately reflect how faculty conduct their work and connect back to the public service model of land grant universities. Penn State’s Public Scholarship Associates is used as an example.

Strong leadership will step forward and do what is right. From the article, “…while disagreement and debate are to be welcomed at a university, that should happen within specific parameters. Calling for the genocide of a people—whether they are Israelis or Palestinians, Jews, Muslims or anyone else—has no place in a university community. Such words are outside the bounds of legitimate debate and unimaginably harmful. No cause is so important as to justify threatening annihilation to anyone. There has to be a better way to make an argument. Second, while there may be some easy cases, drawing the line between permissible and impermissible campus speech is enormously difficult. The U.S. Supreme Court has struggled for more than two centuries to define the limits of free speech under the First Amendment, and that struggle continues. Don’t expect universities to figure it out overnight. When such fundamental issues are at stake, we need to think hard about where we set the boundaries, and we are doing precisely that.”

An insightful conversation with Prof. Shai Davidai, the only one of Columbia Faculty and Staff who is openly standing against antisemitism and anti-Israelism in academia. He discusses the methods of student indocrination, the role of academia in creating modern antisemitic narratives and cliches and their historical origin. Most importantly, he discusses the path forward.

The attack on social sciences and humanities in the UK is abhorrent. It is fundamentally down to a set narrative that says these disciplines are neither prestigious or profitable. This is an ignorant perspective, and a lie based on greed, pretensions and snobbery that is warping the minds of prospective learners. The research and intellectual contributions of the greatest minds behind our very civilizations pertain to subjects under these overarching disciplinary themes. To negate their value, in and to society, is to negate the value of society itself! The university sector has a moral responsibility to change the narrative, and champion the profitability of such disciplines in our society. Any university that fails in that fundamental responsiblity has no business calling themselves a university at all.