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<DIV><FONT size=5>A Conference on Struggles Within and Beyond the Neoliberal
University*<BR></FONT><FONT size=4>April 27-29, 2012, Toronto,
Ontario<BR><BR></FONT><FONT size=3>The university belongs to us, those who
teach, learn, research, council,<BR>clean, and create community. Together we can
and do make the university<BR>work.<BR><BR>But today this university is in
crisis. The neoliberal restructuring of<BR>post-secondary education seeks to
further embed market logic and<BR>corporate-style management into the academy,
killing consultation, autonomy<BR>and collective decision-making. The salaries
of university presidents and<BR>the ranks of administrators swell, but the
people the university is<BR>supposed to serve ­ students ­ are offered
assembly-line education as class<BR>sizes grow, faculty is over-worked, and
teaching positions become<BR>increasingly precarious. International students and
scholars seeking<BR>post-secondary or graduate education are treated as cash
cows rather than<BR>as people who might contribute to both research and society.
Debt-burdened<BR>students are seen as captive markets by administrators, while
faculty is<BR>encouraged to leverage public funds for private research on behalf
of<BR>corporate sponsors.<BR><BR>The attack on what remains of public education
has been total. Over the<BR>last year we have witnessed the closure of
humanities programmes, further<BR>tuition hikes, the replacement of financial
support with loans, union<BR>lockouts, and the accelerated development of
private, for-profit<BR>universities. Yet at the same time we have seen growing
waves of struggle<BR>against these incursions, as students, staff and faculty in
Europe, Latin<BR>America, and across the Middle East organize, occupy and resist
the<BR>transformation.<BR><BR>Our struggles are not limited to the university,
but are a part the<BR>widespread resistance against the neoliberal market logic
subsuming all<BR>sectors of our society. The university is a key battleground in
this<BR>struggle, and a point of conjuncture for the various labour, economic
and<BR>social justice struggles that face all of us ­ workers and students
alike.<BR>Crucially, these struggles occur on stolen indigenous lands and
manifest<BR>through colonialism, racism, sexism, homophobia, ablism and other
forms of<BR>oppression that hurt and divide us and that shape what sorts of
knowledge<BR>are considered valuable.<BR><BR>We cannot cede the ideal of the
university as a site for struggle and<BR>debate. We cannot permit the
dissolution of proliferating research, ideas<BR>and innovations free from the
demands and control of the market. We cannot<BR>watch as universities are
degraded into a mere site for corporate or<BR>state-sponsored research and
marketing. The time to mobilize is now!<BR><BR>This conference will connect and
chart the varied struggles against<BR>neoliberal restructuring of the university
in North America and beyond. We<BR>envision a series of debriefings on
experiences of resistance, the creation<BR>of a cartography of local and global
struggles, and a strategizing session<BR>for students, teachers, workers and
activists. We aim to develop a North<BR>American network of struggles.<BR><BR>We
encourage presentations that raise questions and generate dialogue among<BR>the
rest of the participants. Ideally, submissions will indicate the<BR>specific
outcomes they hope will emerge from the discussion. We
encourage<BR>participation from those with first-hand experience of these
crises, and<BR>those engaged in the fight for free and public post-secondary
education,<BR>especially student groups and trade unions.<BR><BR>For a better
future for all ­ join us!<BR><BR>POSSIBLE THEMES:<BR><BR>
- mapping the terrain of campus struggle in Canada and North
America<BR> - connecting with and learning from global
struggles<BR> - waged and unwaged labour in the
university<BR> - abolition of student
debt<BR> - the university and the occupy
movement<BR> - the cultural politics of the neoliberal
university<BR> - the death of the
humanities<BR> - militarization of the
university<BR> - intersections of university struggles other
fights against oppression<BR> - environmental
justice<BR> - beyond public education<BR> -
radical pedagogy<BR> - academic freedom<BR>
- the politics of research funding<BR> - the economics of the
neoliberal university<BR> - university and student
governance<BR> - the undergraduate experience of
neoliberalism<BR> - alternative/free/autonomous
universities<BR> - organizing the education
factory<BR> - the suppression of on-campus dissent and
organization<BR><BR>Please email submissions to universityisours@gmail.com by
January 16th.<BR>Also, if you would like to attend the conference, please
RSVP to the same<BR>address so organizers can plan for numbers.<BR><BR>This
conference is organized by the edu-factory collective in collaboration<BR>with
the University of Toronto General Assembly. <BR><BR></FONT>via Bob
Hanke<BR><X-SIGSEP></DIV>
<P></X-SIGSEP><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman Baltic, Times">Communication
Studies and Humanities<BR>Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional
Studies<BR>*aka York University<BR>Toronto, Ontario, Canada<BR></FONT>
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