Philosophical Interventions in Neoliberal Higher Education
Published on 14. May 2026
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-1-6669-3983-5 (ISBN)
Description
In this edited collection, philosophers and critical theorists develop theoretical tools to conceptualize and evaluate the neoliberal university, working together both to interrogate how it reproduces systems of oppression and exploitation and to identify more liberatory and egalitarian alternatives.
Acting and organizing within and against neoliberalized higher education in the Western capitalist world, the international group of scholars included in this volume experience the contradictions and possibilities of the contemporary configuration of the university daily. And yet the crisis in higher education is only one aspect of a much broader social crisis in which neoliberalism and related social inequalities, rapid climate change, de-democratization, rising authoritarianism, war, and genocide interconnect. Edited by Brandon Absher, this volume critiques and intervenes in higher education in the midst of this unprecedented social and natural crisis; at once to expose its structure and inadequacies and to envision an alternative based on the principle of the commons.
What can higher education be, and how might it contribute to a more just, egalitarian, and liberated world?
Acting and organizing within and against neoliberalized higher education in the Western capitalist world, the international group of scholars included in this volume experience the contradictions and possibilities of the contemporary configuration of the university daily. And yet the crisis in higher education is only one aspect of a much broader social crisis in which neoliberalism and related social inequalities, rapid climate change, de-democratization, rising authoritarianism, war, and genocide interconnect. Edited by Brandon Absher, this volume critiques and intervenes in higher education in the midst of this unprecedented social and natural crisis; at once to expose its structure and inadequacies and to envision an alternative based on the principle of the commons.
What can higher education be, and how might it contribute to a more just, egalitarian, and liberated world?
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
3 black and white
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
552 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-6669-3983-5 (9781666939835)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Brandon Absher
Philosophical Interventions in Neoliberal Higher Education
E-Book
03/2026
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Academic
€94.99
Available for download
Brandon Absher
Philosophical Interventions in Neoliberal Higher Education
E-Book
03/2026
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Academic
€94.99
Available for download
Person
Brandon Absheris associate professor of philosophy at D'Youville University, USA.
Content
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Intervening in Neoliberal Higher Education
Brandon Absher
Section I: Neoliberal Realities, Emancipatory Possibilities
Chapter One: Theorizing the Post-Pandemic University: Making Live and Letting Die in Neoliberal Higher Education
Brandon Absher
Chapter Two: The Conflict of the Faculties Redux: Subject-Formation, Capital, and the State
Ammon Allred
Chapter Three: Is It Morally Wrong to Publish?
Justin Pack
Chapter Four: One-Dimensionality and Critical Education in Herbert Marcuse
Leandro Sanchez Marin and J. Sebastian David Giraldo
Section II: Authoritarianism and Resistance in the Marketplace of Ideas
Chapter Five: "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen": The Orwellian State of Higher Education in Florida
Margaret A. McLaren, Shelley M. Park, and Eric Smaw
Chapter Six: University as a Space of Resistance: The Case of Bogazici University
Emre Cetin Guerer and Sonay Ban
Chapter Seven: Authoritarianism and Democracy in Higher Education
Noelle McAfee interviewed by Brandon Absher
Section III: The Neoliberal Philosophical Curriculum
Chapter Eight: Brainwashing in the University: Astro-Education and Collective Critique
Tanya Loughead and Jasmina Tacheva
Chapter Nine: Diversity in Modern Philosophy: A Productive Contradiction
John Harfouch
Section IV: Towards a Commons-Based Alternative
Chapter Ten: Higher Learning and Critical Theory Today: Ecosocialism, Ecofeminism, and Ecopedagogy
Charles Reitz
Chapter Eleven: From the Neoliberal University to the University of the Commons
Christian Laval
About the Contributors
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Intervening in Neoliberal Higher Education
Brandon Absher
Section I: Neoliberal Realities, Emancipatory Possibilities
Chapter One: Theorizing the Post-Pandemic University: Making Live and Letting Die in Neoliberal Higher Education
Brandon Absher
Chapter Two: The Conflict of the Faculties Redux: Subject-Formation, Capital, and the State
Ammon Allred
Chapter Three: Is It Morally Wrong to Publish?
Justin Pack
Chapter Four: One-Dimensionality and Critical Education in Herbert Marcuse
Leandro Sanchez Marin and J. Sebastian David Giraldo
Section II: Authoritarianism and Resistance in the Marketplace of Ideas
Chapter Five: "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen": The Orwellian State of Higher Education in Florida
Margaret A. McLaren, Shelley M. Park, and Eric Smaw
Chapter Six: University as a Space of Resistance: The Case of Bogazici University
Emre Cetin Guerer and Sonay Ban
Chapter Seven: Authoritarianism and Democracy in Higher Education
Noelle McAfee interviewed by Brandon Absher
Section III: The Neoliberal Philosophical Curriculum
Chapter Eight: Brainwashing in the University: Astro-Education and Collective Critique
Tanya Loughead and Jasmina Tacheva
Chapter Nine: Diversity in Modern Philosophy: A Productive Contradiction
John Harfouch
Section IV: Towards a Commons-Based Alternative
Chapter Ten: Higher Learning and Critical Theory Today: Ecosocialism, Ecofeminism, and Ecopedagogy
Charles Reitz
Chapter Eleven: From the Neoliberal University to the University of the Commons
Christian Laval
About the Contributors