Centre for the Study of Education and Work: Update 14th October 2012

Higher Education Crisis

CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF EDUCATION AND WORK: UPDATE 14th OCTOBER 2012

EVENTS

Greater Toronto Workers’ Assembly General Membership Meeting

Tuesday, October 30
7:00pm
Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham St, Toronto

The GTWA holds general membership meetings on the last Thursday of the month in order to shape our organization, discuss politics and plan our work. Members are encouraged to attend and take part. Supporters and observers are welcome.

To join the GTWA visit: http://www.workersassembly.ca for information on membership.

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The 54th Adult Education Research Conference (AERC) – Call for Proposals

Extended deadline!

The 2013 AERC Steering Committee is pleased to invite you to submit a proposal for the 54th Adult Education Research Conference scheduled for May 31-June 2, 2013 in St. Louis, Missouri.

Preconferences are scheduled for May 30th. The full call for proposals is attached and is also available online at: http://adulterc.org. Special Recognition: We are especially indebted to The University of Missouri-St. Louis for hosting AERC next spring.

We are accepting proposals for three types of presentations:
1. Papers
2. Research Roundtables
3. Symposia

All proposals must be RECEIVED by email on or before Wednesday, October 24, 2012. Receipt of proposals will be acknowledged by email. Send proposals via email as an attachment to aerc2013@gmail.com.

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Book Launch: The Democratic Imagination

Wednesday, October 17, 2012
7:00pm
The Gladstone Hotel
1214 Queen St West, Toronto

From Ancient Greece to the French Revolution to contemporary Egypt – the concept of popular power has a long and colourful history. But does it have a promising future in the twenty-first century?

James Cairns and Alan Sears examine the past and present states of democracy, its varied concepts, and its future in a book that aims to expand and challenge democratic definition.

In an engaging and personal style, like their book, Sears and Cairns hope to expand and challenge your democratic imagination.

The evening will embrace the voice of the people. Via video presentation others respond to the condition of democracy in Canada, there will be music by DJ Peter Mitton and guest speakers John Grayson, Mary-Jo Nadeau and Sedef Arat-Koc convey their conception of the subject with an added twist – an object representing their democratic view.

$5 or free with book purchase.

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Report from the Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) – Easy to Take for Granted

The role of the public sector & carework in wealth creation

As the province continues down the road of decreased public spending in health care and other public services through initiatives such as imposed wage freezes, forced pension erosion as well as sweeping labour law reform, the Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) is releasing a new research paper showing the wealth-creating role of public spending on health, education and social services in overall economic production.

Easy to Take for Granted: The role of the public sector and carework in wealth creation shows that the value of economic output generated through every dollar spent on public health care, education and social services is considerably higher than each private investment dollar.

Read the report: http://www.ona.org/documents/File/politicalaction/ONA_EasyToTakeForGranted_20121011.pdf

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CSSHE 2013 Conference – Call for Submissions

The Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education (CSSHE) will hold its annual conference June 3-5, 2013 within the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, hosted by the University of Victoria in Victoria, Beautiful British Columbia.

This conference is being planned in close collaboration with the Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education (CASAE) and the Canadian Society for the Study of Education (CSSE) so that individuals attending one of these three conferences will also have the opportunity to attend sessions
at one or both of the other gatherings.

The Congress 2013 theme is “@the Edge.” CSSHE invites submissions that explore the overall theme or aspects of it as applied to the field of higher education. Papers addressing specific-but-related topics such as online learning, governance, research, informal and experiential learning, recruitment and student services will also be considered for inclusion in the program.

For more information: http://www.csshe-scees.ca/06_01_conference_en.htm

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Will Work for Exposure: Cultural Work in Precarious Times

Friday, October 19, 2012
9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Ryerson University, Cara Commons, 7th Floor, Ted Rogers School of Management
55 Dundas St. West, Toronto

A must for freelance journalists, writers, actors, artists.

Join the Centre for Labour Management Relations at Ryerson University for a free one-day conference on the growing problem of precarious work – unpaid internships, part-time, contract and freelance work – in Canada. Hear from peers, researchers, lawyers, community organizers to share strategies for navigating precarious employment and improving working conditions.

Free. Register and get full details:  http://www.eventbrite.com/event/4392329576/eivtefrnd#

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NEWS & VIEWS

Report from the CCPA: How Affordable is a University Education in Your Province?

A new report from the CCPA’s (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives) Education Project tracks the affordability of university education across Canadian provinces. The study looks at trends in tuition and compulsory fees in Canada since 1990, projects fees for each province for the next four years, and examines the impact on affordability for median- and low-income families using a Cost of Learning Index.

Since 1990, with very few exceptions, the tuition fee burden across the country has been increasing faster than incomes, and the average tuition and compulsory fees for Canadian undergraduate students will continue to rise by an estimated 17.7% by 2015-2016.

Read the full report, Eduflation and the High Cost of Learning, to find out which provincial governments are ensuring university education is more affordable for median and low-income families, and which governments are telling students to take a hike.

Read the report: http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/eduflation-and-high-cost-learning

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Report: Gender, Race and Migration: Investigating the Systemic Barriers Immigrant Women Face in Toronto’s Labour Market and the Impacts on Health

Prepared by Access Alliance Multicultural Health and Community Services

Written by Megan Spasevski.

The focus of this OWHN (Ontario Women’s Health Network) E-Bulletin is to give a snapshot of Access Alliance’s forthcoming report addressing the barriers that immigrant women face in the labour market in Toronto post-migration and the effects on individual and family health and well-being.

Read the report: http://www.owhn.on.ca/E_Bulletin_Summer_2012.pdf

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Foxconn’s iPhone Plant Paralyzed as Thousands Strike

TAIPEI/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Foxconn, the Taiwanese made-to-order electronics giant that assembles Apple Inc’s products, denied reports that a plant in China was crippled by a strike, saying on Saturday that its production is on schedule at an important time for Apple.

Read the article: http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCABRE8941JF20121006

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Walmart Warehouse Strikers Return to Work with Full Back Pay

Strikers have returned to work with their heads held high and their wallets full at Walmart’s largest North American distribution center. Warehouse workers in Elwood, Illinois, announced Saturday that they had won their key demand, reinstatement of all who were fired or suspended for on-the-job organizing, along with full back pay for everyone who participated in the three-week strike.

Read the article: http://labornotes.org/2012/10/walmart-warehouse-strikers-return-work-full-back-pay

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ABOUT CSEW (CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF EDUCATION & WORK, OISE/UT):

Head: Peter Sawchuk
Co-ordinator: D’Arcy Martin

The Centre for the Study of Education and Work (CSEW) brings together educators from university, union, and community settings to understand and enrich the often-undervalued informal and formal learning of working people. We develop research and teaching programs at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (UofT) that strengthen feminist, anti-racist, labour movement, and working-class perspectives on learning and work.

Our major project is APCOL: Anti-Poverty Community Organizing and Learning. This five-year project (2009-2013), funded by SSHRC-CURA, brings academics and activists together in a collaborative effort to evaluate how organizations approach issues and campaigns and use popular education. For more information about this project, visit http://www.apcol.ca

For more information about CSEW, visit: http://www.csew.ca.

 

**END**

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Glenn Rikowski’s MySpace Blog: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski/blog

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

Doing and Undoing Academic Labour

Gigi Roggero

DOING AND UNDOING ACADEMIC LABOUR

CENTRE FOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE 2012

Conference 2012

Doing and Undoing Academic Labour

June 7, 2012
9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Learning Landscapes (MB1019)
University of Lincoln

 

In recent decades, a wealth of information has been produced about academic labour: the financialisation of knowledge, diminution of professional autonomy and collegiality through managerialism and audit cultures; the subsumption of higher education into circulations of capital, proletarianisation of intellectual work, shift from dreams of enlightenment and emancipation to imperatives of ‘employability’, and experiences of alienation and anger amongst educators across the world.

This has also been a period of intensifying awareness about the significance of these processes, not only for teachers and students in universities, but for all labour and intellectual, social and political life as well. And now we watch the growth of a transnational movements that is inventing new ways of knowing and producing knowledge, new forms of education, and new possibilities for pedagogy to play a progressive role in struggles for alterantives within the academy and beyond.

Yet within the academy, the proliferation of critical work on these issues is not always accompanied by qualitative changes in everyday practice. The conditions of academic labour for many in the UK are indeed becoming more precarious and repressive – and in unequal measure across institutions and disciplines, and in patterns that retrench existing inequalities of gender, physical ability, class, race and sexuality. The critical analysis of academic labour promises much, but often remains disconnected from the ways we work in practice with others.

This conference brings together scholars and activists from a range of disciplines to discuss these problems, and to consider how critical knowledge about new forms of academic labour can be linked to struggles to humanise labour and knowledge production within and beyond the university.

 

Contributions from:

Mette Louise Berg

Rob Coley

Anna Curcio

Richard Hall

Maria Do Mar Pereira

Dean Lockwood

Andrew McGettigan

Justine Mercer

Sara Motta

Adam O’Meara

Gigi Roggero 

Howard Stevenson

 

Public / Free / Open

This conference is public, free and open to everyone. Please register so we know how many people will be attending. If you have any questions about the event, please contact Dr. Sarah Amsler at samsler@lincoln.ac.uk.

Getting here

Doing and Undoing Academic Labour will be held in Learning Landscapes,  MB1019, the University of Lincoln. Click here for a map of the site.

 

Link to Conference: http://cerd.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/conference/

 

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

For a Public University – Call for Papers

Universities

FOR A PUBLIC UNIVERSITY – CALL FOR PAPERS

Call for Papers – For a Public University

The transformation of Higher Education in the UK is at full speed. The cuts in government funding and the simultaneous increase in tuition fees of up to £9000 per year have dramatic implications. While universities emphasise the need to attract private finance, students are pushed towards courses with direct employment possibilities. At the same time, employers ask for closer co-operation with universities not only in relation to research but also in terms of the development of teaching curricula. The main focus is clear; education should be directed towards business interests in order to strengthen the UK economy.

One outcome is that Higher Education is increasingly commodified as universities exist in the shadow of the market. The space for critical thinking about society has been eroded; students’ ability-to-learn gives way to consumers’ ability-to-pay. Academics have themselves become subject to the charge of irrelevance unless direct policy-relevance is embraced. The critical theoretician is cast adrift as indolent and idle in the race to inform statesmen, to become prophets for science, to make profits for business.

This workshop has the purpose to analyse the underlying dynamics of the transformation of Higher Education in and beyond the UK, to reflect on the social function of Higher Education, as well as develop alternative ways of thinking about how best to deliver Higher Education in the future. The goal is to re-assert ways in which Higher Education can be retained as a public good, available to all.

Papers are invited for the following themes: 

–    Analyses of the current transformation of Higher Education; 

–    Discussions about the social function of Higher Education; and

–    Interventions on how to organise the future of Higher Education.

This one-day workshop is jointly organised by the Local UCU Association at Nottingham University and the Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice (CSSGJ). It will be held at NottinghamUniversity on Friday, 15 June 2012.

All paper proposals should be sent to Andreas Bieler at Andreas.Bieler@nottingham.ac.uk by no later than Friday, 27 April. 

The maximum number of workshop participants will be 25 people, 10 to 12 paper givers plus additional participants.

People who want to participate without giving a paper should also contact Andreas Bieler at: Andreas.Bieler@nottingham.ac.uk as soon as possible. There is no registration fee and two coffee breaks and lunch are provided free of charge by the organisers.

 

Original source: http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/cfp-for-a-public-university-nottingham-15-june-2012  

 

***END***

 

‘Maximum levels of boredom

Disguised as maximum fun’

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ (live, at the Belle View pub,Bangor, northWales)  

 

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Glenn Rikowski’s MySpace Blog: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski/blog

Life in the Higher Sausage Factory

Glenn Rikowski

LIFE IN THE HIGHER SAUSAGE FACTORY

Dr. Glenn Rikowski, School of Education, University of Northampton

Guest Lecture to the Teacher Education Research Group

Glenn Rikowski will talk about Capital in a Crisis of Higher Education, and Higher Education in a Crisis of Capital

22nd March 2012, 5.00pm, The Cass School of Education and Communities, Room 2.02, University of East London, Water Lane, London E15 4LZ

“Capitalist production is not merely the production of commodities, it is essentially the production of surplus-value. The labourer produces, not for himself, but for capital. It no longer suffices, therefore, that he should simply produce. He must produce surplus-value. That labourer alone is productive, who produces surplus-value for the capitalist, and thus works for the self-expansion of capital. If we may take an example from outside the sphere of production of material objects, a schoolmaster is a productive labourer, when, in addition to belabouring the heads of his scholars, he works like a horse to enrich the school proprietor. That the latter has laid out his capital in a teaching factory, instead of a sausage factory, does not alter the relation. Hence the notion of a productive labourer implies not merely a relation between work and useful effect, between labourer and product of labour, but also a specific, social relation of production, a relation that has sprung up historically and stamps the labourer as the direct means of creating surplus-value. To be a productive labourer is, therefore, not a piece of luck, but a misfortune” (Karl Marx, Capital, Volume I).

 

UPDATE, 5th March 2014: The paper can now be downloaded from Academia. There are many other of my papers there too. See: https://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

 

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

At the Heart of a Heartless System, the New Student Experience? Shaping Relationships in Higher Education

The Assault on Universities

AT THE HEART OF A HEARTLESS SYSTEM, THE NEW STUDENT EXPERIENCE? SHAPING RELATIONSHIPS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

SRHE Student Experience Network

Thursday 23rd February 2012

Registration 11.00am – 11.30am

Seminar 11.30am – 4.30pm

SRHE, 73 Collier St, London N1 9BE

At the Heart of a heartless system, the new student experience? Shaping relationships in Higher Education

A one-day SEN seminar discussing partnerships, relationships and generations

A number of current terms for student are often criticised for their ideological baggage. Monetized labels such as ‘client’ and ‘customer’ implicitly reframe academics as providers and producers, reducing the student experience to the status of product. Such thinking establishes not only fixed identity roles, but also the flow of the process governing transactions between them. One way of disturbing, or at least questioning, this logic is to focus on the quality and nature of the relationships between the actors.

This one-day Student Experience Network seminar examines the relationships between HEIs, academics and students. It questions how they are conceived and suggests ways to enact them. What, for example, is the tension between generational politics and notions of partnership? If there is a new ‘radical’, ‘lost’ or ‘jilted’ generation forming (to name three recent books), how should HEIs and practitioners pursue partnership with them and vice versa?

Structured around four speakers, the day will provoke practical and useful discussion for anyone with an interest in student engagement, staff/student relationships, and the way in which the student experience is framed around them.

Dr Paul Ashwin, Senior Lecturer in HE in here@lancaster, the HE Research and Evaluation Centre in the Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University.

Colin Bryson, Director of Combined Honours Centre, Newcastle University.

Dr Ben Little, Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies,University of Middlesex.

Dr Sabine Little, Editor of Staff-Student Partnerships in Higher Education (Continuum, 2011), University of Sheffield.

Professor Valerie Hey, Head of Education, Professor of Education,University of Sussex. (Discussant)

Graeme Wise, Assistant Director (Policy), National Students’ Union (Discussant)

Event booking details

To reserve a place at this seminar please register at http://www.eventdotorg.co.uk/events.asp or telephone +44 (0) 207 427 2350.   SRHE events are open to all and free to SRHE members as part of their membership package. The delegate fee for non-members is £25 [full time students £20]. Non-members wishing to join the Society may do so at the time of registration and the delegate fee will be waived. Please note that places must be booked in advance and that a £25 for non-attendance will  be charged if a place has been reserved but no notice of cancellation/non-attendance has been given in advance.

**END**

‘I believe in the afterlife.

It starts tomorrow,

When I go to work’

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Human Herbs’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h7tUq0HjIk (live)

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Higher Education in the Liquid Modern Era

Higher Education Crisis

HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE LIQUID MODERN ERA

 BSA Regional Postgraduate Day School Event 2011

Higher Education in the Liquid Modern Era: Swirling Down the Drain?

The Bauman Institute, University of Leeds, Friday 9 September, 2011

Last remaining places! Book now: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/events/postgrad.htm

The metaphor of liquidity is used in Zygmunt Bauman’s work to represent the loss of security felt as more the ‘solid’ institutions and ‘traditional’ patterns of social relations of modernity break down/dissolve in the contemporary world. A striking example of this can be found to exist in the situation facing contemporary participants – students, teachers and researchers – in higher education (HE), especially those working in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.

The ‘traditional’ pursuits of academia are being increasingly undermined by changes which are aimed at subordinating free enquiry to the shifting demands of the marketplace. The proposed changes to HE funding outlined by the current UK coalition government seem likely to further exacerbate the tendency towards instrumentalism in HE, while simultaneously destabilizing employment in both the knowledge and the culture industries in the UK for many years to come.

In light of these recent proposals, and the likely assault on non-STEM subjects that will ensue, we feel that it would be productive to consider as postgraduate students the likely landscape which we are about to enter. We aim to do this by drawing on Bauman, who has written and recently lectured on the role of sociologists and higher education in contemporary society (‘Education in Liquid Modernity’, 2005; Sociology – Whence and Whither?: Speech from the Bauman Institute Launch Conference, 2010), as well as others, in order to produce a written statement in defence of social science.

Whilst this will be a collaborative effort, with input predominantly from sociology postgraduates, we envisage inviting a small number of postgraduates and academics from other disciplines to contribute their ideas and efforts. Through this, we suggest that a more comprehensive understanding of the common problems facing those across the social sciences, at different stages in their academic lives, can help us to produce a justification of sociology’s continuing value and importance beyond narrow, mechanistic definitions of ‘impact’.

The aim of the event is to provide a space for postgraduate social scientists to engage in critical reflection on the proposed changes to higher education funding in the UK and their implications for our so-called ‘knowledge’ society, particularly through drawing on the insights provided in the work of Zygmunt Bauman on the insecurities and uncertainties of life in liquid modern times.

The event will consist of a mix of papers from postgraduate students, three keynote speakers, panel discussion, and collaborative workshop sessions. Postgraduate students will receive first preference for places.

Registration fees: BSA Members: Free Non-members: £25

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk  

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com  

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com  

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Positive Futures for Higher Education – SRHE Annual Research Conference

Higher Education Crisis

POSITIVE FUTURES FOR HIGHER EDUCATION – SRHE ANNUAL RESEARCH CONFERENCE

SRHE Annual Research Conference 7-9 December 2011

Call for Papers & Conference registration

The Society invites contributions for its Annual Research Conference 2011.The Conference theme this year is: Positive Futures for Higher Education: Connections, Communities and Criticality

Download Call for Papers: SRHE Annual Research Conference Research submissions

The Conference welcomes research papers relating to further, higher, undergraduate, postgraduate and professional education in a wide range of research domains.

The Society’s Annual Conference is a truly international event bringing together delegates and contributors from over 35 countries. We hope researchers and scholars from the many forms of higher education globally and in theUKwill contribute to this Conference, stimulating international debate on the way in which higher education is transforming its relations with governments, policymakers, institutions, employers, staff and students.

You are invited to contribute to this debate in a variety of ways: by presenting a paper, sharing in a symposium based on your own and others’ research or scholarly work, including work of a conceptual or theoretical nature, or organising a round table on any aspect of this year’s theme or your own research interests. Empirical and scholarly research from a wide range of perspectives is welcome.

The deadline for submission of proposals is Monday 27 June 2011

This timetable will enable all submitting authors to be notified of papers accepted by 31 July 2011.

We look forward once again to receiving your proposals and to another very successful conference at the Celtic Manor resort inNewport,Wales,UKand I encourage you to submit your work and register for the conference as soon as possible.

Registration by 31 August 2011 will guarantee accommodation at the world famous Celtic Manor resort (rather than adjacent hotels) and attracts important early registration discounts. 

You will find all the information you need on making a submission on the Conference website http://srhe .ac.uk/conference2011

Conference registration is now open.

If you have any additional enquiries please email the Society at srheconferenceteam@srhe.ac.uk

We hope that you will contribute a paper and participate in this conference and look forward to seeing you in December.

SRHE Newer Researchers’ Conference 6-7 December 2011

The SRHE Newer Researchers’ Conference on the same theme will take place at the Celtic Manor one day in advance of the Annual Research Conference.

This is an excellent event for postgraduate students and newer researchers, providing the opportunity to present research work in a nurturing environment and participate in a number of seminars and discussions. The Call for Papers for this Conference will be issued shortly and the timetable for submissions and registration are later for this smaller conference.

Kind regards

Helen Perkins, Director, Society for Research into Higher Education, 44 Bedford Row, London WC1R  4LL, Tel +44 (0) 20 7447 2525, fax +44 (0) 20 7447 2526, email: hsperkins@srhe.ac.uk SRHE: http://www.srhe.ac.uk

END ***

‘I believe in the afterlife.

It starts tomorrow,

When I go to work’

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Human Herbs’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h7tUq0HjIk (live)

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

London Metropolitan University in Occupation

Student Rebellion

LONDON METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY IN OCCUPATION

Students at London Metropolitan University are occupying the Graduate Centre in opposition to the proposed closure of almost two thirds of the university.

The cuts at London Met are of an absolutely devastating scale and demand a response from across our movement. We encourage everyone to rush messages of support to wearelondonmet@gmail.com and to send representatives to the teach-in on Saturday:

We AreLondonMet – Education not Privatisation

Saturday May 7th, 10am-4pm

Graduate Centre, London Met University, Holloway Road

Followed by social in the Rocket Bar, to celebrate the winning the London Living Wage for all workers at London Met.

Flyer: http://www.londonmetunison.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/LonMetTeachInA5_HiRes-1.pdf
Draft Programme: http://www.londonmetunison.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/We-Are-London-Met-programme.pdf

This event is FREE and OPEN to all the community but PLEASE register in advance, by emailing  su@londonmet.ac.uk
For more info: http://www.wearelondonmet.wordpress.com

Ian Tomlinson Verdict Vindicates Protestors

The jury at the inquest into the death of Ian Tomlinson has now found that he was unlawfully killed at the G20 protests, opening the door towards the possible prosecution of a police officer. Tomlinson’s death has exposed the violent and political way in which protests are often policed, and the subsequent lack of accountability on the part of the police stands in stark contrast to the harsh sentences often handed out to protestors. 

After the violent police tactics on the student demonstrations, the charging of Alfie Meadows and others, and the mass arrests of Fortnum & Mason occupiers, we need to remind the police that protesting against the government’s attacks on our education is not a crime.

Emergency Open Meeting – Stand Up To These Attacks On Our Right To Protest

Thursday 5 May, 6:30pm

Friends Meeting House,173 Euston Road,LondonNW1 2BJ

With some introductions by

ALFIE MEADOWS – arrested protester

JOHN McDONNELL MP

FORTNUM & MASONS OCCUPIER and defendant

NINAPOWER-SeniorLecturerRoehamptonUniversity

LAURIE PENNY – Journalist

CHARLIE VEITCH – Love Police

JIM WOLFREYS -LondonRegion UCU/Education Activist Network

UKUNCUT

Demonstration and press conference at the Fortnum & Mason hearing

Monday 9 May

9am demo followed by 9:30am press conference

City ofWestminsterMagistrates Court,70 Horseferry Road

For more information:

www.defendtherighttoprotest.org

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Defend-the-Right-to-Protest/178594298855659

***END***

‘I believe in the afterlife.

It starts tomorrow,

When I go to work’

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Human Herbs’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h7tUq0HjIk (live)

‘Maximum levels of boredom

Disguised as maximum fun’

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ (live, at the Belle View pub, Bangor, north Wales)  

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Springtime: The New Student Rebellions

We Are the Crisis

SPRINGTIME: THE NEW STUDENT REBELLIONS

Edited by Clare Solomon and Tania Palmieri
OUT NOW in the UK; Published September 2011, USA

Book launch and party on: Thursday 7 April, 2011, 6.30pm – 11pm
At The Venue & Gallery bar @ ULU, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HY
Free entry / All ages / All proceeds to PalestineConnect http://www.palestineconnect.org
Come early for drinks reception
Books available for purchase at discounted price of £7

With talks and readings from:

Clare Solomon, (President of ULU)

Jody McIntyre, (Equality Movement)

Dr Nina Power, (Roehampton)

Jo Casserly, (UCL)

Ashok Kumar, (LSE SU)

Kanja Sesay, (NUS Black Students Officer)

James Meadway, (SOAS)

& more tbc

And open mic, poetry, live graffiti wall, music and projections by: Noel Douglas, (Globalise Resistance), Tyler Perkin, (Havering Sixth  Form College), DJ Steaz, Logic MC, (The Peoples Army & We are Dubist), Zain (Words Apart poetry group)

The autumn and winter of 2010 saw an unprecedented wave of student protests across the UK in response to the coalition government’s savage cuts in state funding for higher education, cuts which formed the basis for an ideological attack on the nature of education itself. Middle-class students, teenagers from diverse backgrounds and older activists took part in marches, teach-ins and occupations, and also creative new forms: flashmobs, YouTube dance-offs, and the literal literary resistance of colourful book blocs.

The protests spread with wildfire speed, mainly organised through the unprecedented use of social media such as facebook and twitter. Web-savvy, media-literate students developed Sukey, the anti-kettling phone app, publicise their demands through online and traditional media outlets and continue to build ever-denser international networks of solidarity.

The winter of discontent now gives rise to the new spirit of rebellion this spring with a broader, stronger resistance to austerity measures. We have already seen the astonishing events in the Arab world, trade union rallies in Wisconsin on a scale not seen in America since the Vietnam protests, direct-action by tax-justice campaigners UK Uncut – and 26 March will see ‘March for the Alternative’ the largest national anti-cuts demonstration yet. SPRINGTIME is both an inspiring chronicle of and companion to this movement: “the formulation of an experience” of a generation.

Rather than considering them a series of isolated incidents, this new book locates the student protests in the movement spreading across the entire western world: ever since the financial crash of 2008 there has been growing social and political turbulence in the heartlands of capital and beyond. From Athens to Rome, San Francisco to London – and the stunning events in Tunisia and Egypt that captured the world’s imagination – students are playing a key role in developing a strong, coherent social and political movement.

*****

CLARE SOLOMON is President of the University of London Union and has been centrally involved in the student protests.

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ISBN: 978 1 84467 740 5/ $14.95 / £9.99 / Paperback / 296 pages
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For more information or to buy the book visit: http://www.versobooks.com/books/799-springtime
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Become a fan of Verso on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Verso-Books-UK/122064538789
And get updates on Twitter too! http://twitter.com/VersoBooksUK

—END—

‘I believe in the afterlife.

It starts tomorrow,

When I go to work’

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Human Herbs’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h7tUq0HjIk (live)

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

14th Marxism and Education: Renewing Dialogues (MERD) Seminar

Glenn Rikowski

14th MARXISM AND EDUCATION: RENEWING DIALOGUES (MERD) SEMINAR

Understanding the Current Crisis in Higher Education
MARXISM AND EDUCATION: RENEWING DIALOGUES XIV

A Day Seminar

10.30 – 4.30
Saturday April 9th 2011
Institute of Education, University of London
20 Bedford Way, WC1
Room 828

Speakers to include:
Patrick Ainley, Martin Allen, Sarah Amsler, Joyce Canaan, Clyde Chitty, Chris Knight

The seminar is free but places are limited.

To reserve a place and receive a numbered ticket, please contact Alpesh Maisuria at: amaisuria@ioe.ac.uk
A waiting list will come into operation when all the places have been allocated.

Please forward this invite to those who may be interested.

Convenors: Tony Green and Alpesh Maisuria

The MERD Seminars were co-founded by Tony Green and Glenn Rikowski in 2001. The First MERD Seminar took place at the University of London, Institute of Education on 22^nd October 2002. For details of the first ten MERD Seminars, see: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=events&sub=MERD

—END—

‘I believe in the afterlife.

It starts tomorrow,

When I go to work’

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Human Herbs’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h7tUq0HjIk (live)

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Unmaking the Public University

Higher Education Crisis

UNMAKING THE PUBLIC UNIVERSITY

Chris Newfield author of the “Unmaking of the Public University” is speaking at Goldsmiths College, University of London, next Monday

Monday 7th March, 2011
5.00pm-7.00pm
Room 309, Richard Hoggart Builidng
Christopher Newfield “The Broken American Funding Model: Our Higher Education Problem, and Yours”

The talk will discuss the conventional wisdom about how American research universities are funded, and show that it is wrong. Although Americans disagree about whether the privatization of public universities is educationally and socially desirable, there is a general consensus that it is financially sound. This talk shows that privatization doesn’t make basic budgetary sense, and that one can argue against reduction of public funding on financial as well as educational and social grounds. It will also review recent U.S. activism and suggest ways in which a better higher education model might be starting to emerge.

Introduced and chaired by Les Back

Christopher Newfield teaches American Studies in the English Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His current research focuses on higher education history, funding, and policy, culture and innovation, and the relation between culture and economics. Recent articles have appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Academe, Le Monde Diplomatique, La Revue Internationale des Livres et des Idées, Radikal (Turkey), Social Text, Critical Inquiry, and South Atlantic Quarterly, and include “The Renewal of Student Movements, 2009-10,” “The View from 2020: How Universities Came Back,” “The End of the American Funding Model: What Comes Next? “Ending the Budget Wars: Funding the Humanities during a Crisis in Higher Education,” “Public Universities at Risk: 7 Damaging Myths,” “Science and Social Welfare,” “L’Université et la revanche des ‘Elites’ aux Etats-Unis,” “Why Public is Losing to Private in American Research,” and “Can American Studies Do Economics?” He is the author of The Emerson Effect: Individualism and Submission in America (University of Chicago Press, 1996), Ivy and Industry: Business and the Making of the American University, 1880-1980 (Duke University Press, 2003), and Unmaking the Public University: The Forty Year Assault on the Middle Class (Harvard University Press, 2008), chairs the Innovation Group at the NSF Center for Nanotechnology in Society, runs a blog on the current crisis in higher education, Rethinking the University (http://utotherescue.blogspot.com), blogs at the Huffington Post, and is working on a book called Lower Education: What to do about our Downsized Future.

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Cultures of Occupation and Demonstration – 2010 / 1968 / 1917

Higher Education Crisis

CULTURES OF OCCUPATION AND DEMONSTRATION – 2010 / 1968 /1917

In the context of numerous student occupations of their universities and mass demonstrations, the seminar Marxism in Culture has organised a special session on:

17th December

Institute of Historical Research

Senate House, University of London

5.30

All welcome

‘Cultures of Occupation and Demonstration: 2010/1968/1917’

With:

Warren Carter
Gail Day
Steve Edwards
Esther Leslie
David Mabb
Nina Power
Alberto Toscano

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com