The Non-Modern Crisis of the Modern University

A landmark work of critical theory about the Western university from the Southern Cone. Presented in English for the first time, this book rewrites the idea of the Western university while also diagnosing the ills of postdictatorship Chile through a philosophically informed dismantling of its neoliberal institutionalization of higher education.

---

A landmark work of critical theory about the Western university from the Southern Cone Renowned Chilean philosopher Willy Thayer’s La crisis no moderna de la universidad moderna, first published in 1996 and in an updated edition in 2019, is a landmark work of critical theory from the Southern Cone. Presented in English for the first time, The Non-Modern Crisis of the Modern University rewrites the idea of the Western university while also diagnosing the ills of postdictatorship Chile through a philosophically informed dismantling of its neoliberal institutionalization of higher education. Bret Leraul’s translation advances the vital work of globalizing critical university studies by disseminating theory from the Global South. If the university helped to construct Chile’s neoliberal society, Thayer’s polemical deconstruction of both will help readers reconstruct the cultural politics of the era to better understand the global hegemony of neoliberalism today.