The Interlude in Academe: Reclaiming Time and Space for Intellectual Life (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781666900439)

This book is an exploration of the idea that interludes - or disruptions to our usual rhythms, rituals, and routines - offer individuals and institutions alike an incomparable opportunity to examine the governing assumptions that undergird academic work and to experiment with alternative modes and models of intellectual life. Using the COVID-19 pandemic as the prime example of an externally imposed interlude on a mass scale, the book argues that the compulsion of most colleges and universities to "return to business as usual" reveals that the "business" of the academic enterprise is only tangentially about learning, ideas, or the life of the mind. It is mostly about keeping the institutional machinery running at all costs, typically at the behest of state and market forces. Meanwhile, interludes of any size or duration, from massively disruptive global pandemics to brief elective personal retreats, offer occasions for interrogating our entrenched policies and practices and are simultaneously spaces for the pursuit of learning and idea play both within and beyond institutions.

Author: David J. Siegel
ISBN-10: 1666900435
ISBN-13: 9781666900439
Publisher: Lexington Books
Language: English
Published: 01/23/2023
Pages: 184
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.97lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.56d