Sunday 9 March 2008

"Indoctrinate U"?


As if we needed further reminder that the academy is a contested public sphere, and thereby cannot be equated in a knee jerk fashion with antiquated notions of "the ivory tower", "ritual" etc, the debates featured in this [right wing] documentary come readymade with the strategies familiar from "the science wars", the questioning of the academic legitimacy of cultural studies, and "political correctness" more generally. What is novel though is the forums in which they are opening up, as the presence of this trailer on youtube attests.
For the record, a debate between opposing sides, namely a progressive academic and the libertarian filmmaker, can be found from this link, which amounts to an excellent rejoinder by the former, as well as a resource worth monitoring in the future [given the resurgence of such debates].

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