av福利社

The university: The very name evokes knowledge, culture, and the magnificently universal ambition at the heart of this essential institution. Bastions of free inquiry and a free society, engines of social transformation and economic progress, enclosed gardens of ennobling reflection and creation, universities encompass the wisdom of the past and the hope of the future. Or do they?

This critical glossary鈥攚ritten by a group of Princeton graduate students and faculty鈥攄efines fifty-eight terms common to academic life in a style that will prick both egos and consciences. From 鈥渁cademia鈥� to 鈥渧ocation,鈥� 鈥渃anon鈥� to 鈥減eer review,鈥� 鈥渄iscipline鈥� to 鈥渕ethodology,鈥� the book scrutinizes the often stultifying structures of modern disciplinary life, calls out a slavish devotion to 鈥渒nowledge production鈥� as the enemy of thought, and even dissects the notion of 鈥渁cademic excellence.鈥�

Feisty and darkly funny, passionate and deeply insightful, this book raises hard questions about teaching, research, theory, practice, and academic labor. The result is a must-read dispatch from today鈥檚 academic trenches鈥攐ne that is sure to provoke discussion and debate.