Course Info

Browse the Course Catalog Course Search

Course Info for POLS - 346 - 01, Fall 2022
Class number: 3178 Title: Capitalism & Higher Education Department: Political Science
Career: Undergraduate Component: Lecture Session: Regular
Instructor's Permission Required: No Grading Basis: Regular Units: 1.00
Enrollment limited to 25 Current enrollment: 23 Available seats: 2
Start date: Tuesday, September 6, 2022 End date: Wednesday, December 21, 2022 Mode of Instruction: In Person
Schedule: MW: 1:30PM-2:45PM, MC - 213 Instructor(s): Kamola, Isaac
Prerequisite(s): None
Distribution Requirement: Meets Social Sciences Requirement
Note: This course is Methodologically Focused
Course Description:
Since their inception, universities have always been closely aligned with the interests and pressures of the market. Colleges train employees, develop human capital, design products, gentrify neighborhoods, and often treat education itself as a commodity. Corporate interests, billionaire philanthropists, and state governments have pressured universities to operate as businesses, with students as consumers. This course examines how higher education has evolved alongside changes in capitalist production, looking at: changing theories about the purpose of higher education, the historic rise of the corporate and neoliberal university as well as the various progressive social movements and right-wing backlashes that shape higher education today. We examine these changes through a sustained engagement with the Trinity College archives.