A panel presented by the Cultural Studies PhD Program
This event is intended to be a frank discussion of the ways in which universities fulfill public objectives. We are particularly interested in discussing how universities are administered, how they set and pursue their missions, and how individual faculty members conceive of their role within a university. We want to discuss issues such as the recent division of the College of Arts and Sciences, the patenting of university scientific research and discoveries, as well as how George Mason's academic units pursue funding and distribute resources. To that end, we have invited several faculty members from a range of disciplines to talk about their personal teaching and academic philosophies and how they fit these intellectual standards into the overarching mission of Mason.
Specific questions we have include:
- How does the liberal university work to obtain public objectives?
- How does the increasing pressure to produce skilled labor affect the traditional liberal goal of broad humanist education?
- How does the role of the research university as the producer and owner of specific and marketable knowledge effect decisions about appropriations, curriculum, and organization?
- What led to the recent split in what was the College of Arts and Sciences, and how has it affected the individual departments within the two new colleges?