The Idea of the University

Debaditya Bhattacharya teaches literature at Kazi Nazrul University, India. He has previously taught at Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi, India (2010–2012), Central University of South Bihar, India (2013–2015) and Nivedita College, University of Calcutta, India (2015–2018). Debaditya’s doctoral work engaged with the relationship between literature and death, and with specific reference to the testimonial speech-act. He researches on continental philosophy, and writes on contemporary modes of political articulation as well as practices of mobilization in the Indian context. His current interests cohere around a social-economic history of higher education, with specific attention to Indian policy-contexts. He is co-editor of Sentiment, Politics, Censorship: The State of Hurt (2016).

Introduction: The University in History: From ‘Idea’ to Impossibility. Part I: Historicising the Contemporary 1. The Vocation of the Public University 2. The Surplus University 3. Perils and Prospects of the Modern University: African and Asian Contexts in a World-Historical Perspective Part II: Understanding Contexts 4. Divide and Educate 5. Of Utopias and Universities 6. Audit Cultures and the Indian University as Credit-Capital 7. Of Feudal Intellectual Capital: The History of the New Provincial Universities Part III: (A)politics in/of the University? 8. Is There a Calling on the Left? 9. The University as Passivity? The Role of Students’ Political Activism 10. The Convergence of Unequals: Struggle for Rights in the University Space Part IV: Reflections and Memoirs 11. Bearing Witness to the University-‘Idea’: Some Personal Reflections 12. Don’t Study, Be Happy 13. The Presidential Transition 14. University: The State’s Kitchen?