Justifying (Feminist) Biblical Studies in a Neoliberal Age

2020 ◽  
pp. 179-198
Author(s):  
John W. Fadden
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Liberal Arts College ◽  
Biblical Studies

This essay looks at the place of biblical studies as a secular field of the humanities in an undergraduate liberal arts college in the neoliberal age. First, the article reviews the idea of neoliberalism as a governing rationality. Next, the article assesses how neoliberalism transforms the notion of higher education and the humanities, reducing it to economic terms for administrators, faculty, and students. The article also attends to neoliberalism’s effect on gendered experiences in higher education. Under this rationality, few justifications are available for biblical studies beyond economic reasons. Lastly, the article places (feminist) biblical studies in conversation with other fields challenging neoliberal rationality for justifying the continued existence of the humanities. It examine what (feminist) biblical studies may contribute to an intersectional humanities project for the liberal arts college as an alternative to the neoliberal vision of higher education.

scholarly journals Centering the Margins: Knowledge Production in the Introductory Archaeology Course

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kylie Quave ◽  
Shannon Fie ◽  
AmySue Qing Qing Greiff ◽  
Drew Alis Agnew
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Students Of Color ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Liberal Arts College ◽  
Course Structure ◽  
Student Reflection ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Us ◽  
Full Picture

Teaching introductory archaeology courses in US higher education typically falls short in two important ways: the courses do not represent the full picture of who contributes to reconstructing the past and do not portray the contemporary and future relevance of the archaeological past. In this paper, we use anti-colonial and decolonial theories to explain the urgency of revising the introductory archaeology curriculum for promoting equity in the discipline and beyond. We detail the pedagogical theories we employed in revising an introductory archaeology course at a small liberal arts college in the US and the specific changes we made to course structure, content, and teaching strategies. To examine the impacts on enrolled students and on who chose to enroll in the revised archaeology curriculum, we analyze student reflection essays and enrollment demographics. We find that students developed more complex understandings of the benefits and harms of archaeological knowledge production and could articulate how to address archaeology’s inequities. We also found that enrollment in archaeology courses at the college shifted to include greater proportions of students of color. These results support the notion that introductory archaeology courses should be substantially and continually revised.

scholarly journals Parties or Problem Sets: Review Article on How College Works and Paying for the Party

2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 136-147
Author(s):  
William R. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Distance Learning ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Student Outcomes ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Liberal Arts College ◽  
Review Article ◽  
Individual Student ◽  
State University ◽  
Subjective Data

The potential of Internet-enabled distance learning to transform higher education focuses attention on exactly what residential higher-education institutions do for and to their students. Two recent books marshal detailed quantitative and subjective data on individual student outcomes to document the effects of two institutions and how these outcomes might be improved. Paying for the Party concludes that a Midwestern state university reinforces existing economic inequalities rather than fostering upward mobility. How College Works finds that a northeastern liberal-arts college generally serves its students well and suggests low-cost improvements. These claims are evaluated. (JEL D63, I23, I24)

scholarly journals The Lightboard: Expectations and Experiences

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-84
Author(s):  
Sarah McCorkle ◽  
Paul Whitener
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Liberal Arts College ◽  
Southern United States ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Use Case ◽  
Pilot Design ◽  
Faculty And Administrators

This case study describes a small-scale Lightboard pilot and a full-scale Lightboard build with accompanying studio at a small, private liberal arts college in the southern United States. This article will provide an overview of the Lightboard landscape in higher education, offer considerations for the construction of a Lightboard, and share the authors’ experiences and outcomes. In writing this article, the authors’ goal is to present an attainable use case for the construction of a Lightboard by introducing a simplistic pilot design that was well received by faculty and administrators.

The Endless Dance: Realization of Western Liberal Arts Tradition in Chinese Cultural Context

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-64
Author(s):  
Ching-Fai Ng
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Liberal Arts College ◽  
Traditional Culture ◽  
Chinese Traditional Culture ◽  
Whole Person ◽  
International College ◽  
Literature History

Being the first full scale cooperation in higher education between the Mainland and Hong Kong, the United International College (uic) positioned itself as “A New liberal Arts College” to help the country diversify her higher education landscape as part of education reform. While attempting to retain the defining characteristics of a us-style liberal arts college—caring for students, small class sizes, broad based curricula, facilitating cross fertilization of ideas, uic strongly emphasizes Chinese traditional culture, literature, history and Chinese thoughts through the ages, in addition to helping students acquire an international outlook. This is deemed essential not only because the students should learn about their own cultural heritage, but also they should treasure the wisdom of traditional Chinese thinking that could lend a helping hand to solving many problems the world faces today. It is gratifying to see that, after 10 years’ experimentation, the traditional western liberal arts education could be realized in the Chinese traditional culture context. In particular, the Confucius education philosophy could help nurture the whole person—junzi (君子), which is the overarching education goal of uic.

Faculty Development Needs for Distance Education

2018 ◽  
pp. 1705-1720
Author(s):  
Anne Saylor
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Distance Education ◽  
Online Learning ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Faculty Development ◽  
Learning Environment ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Management System ◽  
Liberal Arts College ◽  
Online Instructor

This report presents the results of a review that looked at what college resources are needed to support an online environment and how a small liberal arts college can prepare faculty for a shift in pedagogy is one of today's major issues, when using a Learning Management System (LMS) to teach. A literature review was done to review the ideas of what college resources are needed to support an online learning environment in Higher Education and the implications for faculty development in a small liberal arts college. The main themes surveyed were faculty and the support needed to move a classroom instructor to an online instructor. The research focused on how constructivist learning could support faculty development.

Entrepreneurship and the Liberal Arts: The Making of Ashoka University

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Mukesh Sud ◽  
Priyank Narayan ◽  
Medha Agarwal
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Prior Experience ◽  
Liberal Arts College ◽  
Indian School ◽  
New Model ◽  
Entrepreneurial Networks ◽  
Personal Capital ◽  
Small Plot ◽  
World Class

In 2006, four successful entrepreneurs decided to establish a world-class mega university. Initially, the project progressed slowly until Vineet Gupta was able to locate a small plot of land in Sonipat, Haryana. Forty-eight hours before the payment deadline, Ashish Dhawan and Sanjeev Bikchandani agreed to invest in their personal capital to kick start the project. They however suggested a pivot in favour of a smaller private liberal arts college. Meanwhile, Pramath Sinha, with prior experience in establishing the Indian School of Business launched a pilot through the Young India Fellowship (YIF). Dhawan and Bikchandani, through their extensive entrepreneurial networks, raised scholarships for the first two batches of the fellowship in the hope of attracting other donors to the board and getting a buy-in for Ashoka University. The team faced a number of challenges: managing the new model of collective philanthropy, recruiting faculty and finding jobs for the first undergraduate batch. At Ashoka University's first graduation ceremony in 2017 they wondered whether this model could revolutionise the higher education space like the IITs and IIMs had done for the country.

scholarly journals Building a Liberal Arts Tradition in India

2021 ◽  
pp. 123-137
Author(s):  
Takako Mino
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Liberal Arts College ◽  
Culturally Relevant Education ◽  
Societal Challenges ◽  
Indian Context ◽  
The Us ◽  
Education In India ◽  
Indian Higher Education ◽  
Relevant Education

Postcolonial nations often struggle with the legacy of higher education systems built by and for the benefit of former colonizers. In India, several visionaries have endeavored to design new approaches to higher education that are suitable to India’s unique context while taking inspiration from the US liberal arts college model. Interest in the liberal arts has grown - in an interconnected world, where a broader scope of understanding is required to craft solutions to societal challenges, young Indians are seeking an alternative to the specialized university model that has dominated the Indian higher education landscape since colonial times. This paper explores the practice of the liberal arts in India through three questions: How does the liberal arts approach fit within the Indian context? How have Indian universities built their own liberal arts tradition? What tensions do these universities navigate? I collected data through a document analysis and interviews with founders, faculty, students, and alumni at three new liberal arts universities in India. While communicating the practical value of the liberal arts to a largely unfamiliar population, the universities built their own liberal arts tradition to help students appreciate, analyze, and develop a commitment to improving the Indian context. At the same time, universities faced numerous tensions: responding to pressures to produce highly employable graduates while remaining true to their institutional ideals, balancing wisdom from both the western liberal arts model and indigenous Indian traditions, and fostering greater inclusion while maintaining financial sustainability. The study’s findings contribute to the field of higher education in India and other postcolonial countries seeking to create new culturally relevant education traditions.

scholarly journals Centering the Margins

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Kylie E. Quave ◽  
Shannon M. Fie ◽  
AmySue Qing Qing Greiff ◽  
Drew Alis Agnew
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Students Of Color ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Liberal Arts College ◽  
The United States ◽  
Course Structure ◽  
Student Reflection ◽  
The Past ◽  
Full Picture

ABSTRACT Teaching introductory archaeology courses in U.S. higher education typically falls short in two important ways: the courses do not represent the full picture of who contributes to reconstructing the past, and they do not portray the contemporary and future relevance of the archaeological past. In this article, we use anti-colonial and decolonial theories to explain the urgency of revising the introductory archaeology curriculum for promoting equity in the discipline and beyond. We detail the pedagogical theories we employed in revising an introductory archaeology course at a small liberal arts college in the United States and the specific changes we made to course structure, content, and teaching strategies. To examine the impacts on enrolled students and on who chose to enroll in the revised archaeology curriculum, we analyze student reflection essays and enrollment demographics. We found that students developed more complex understandings of the benefits and harms of archaeological knowledge production and could articulate how to address archaeology's inequities. We also found that enrollment in archaeology courses at the college shifted to include greater proportions of students of color. These results support the notion that introductory archaeology courses should be substantially and continually revised.

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