Curiosity and Commitment: Perspectives on the Transformation of European Universities

Authors

Lydia Maria Arantes (ed) University of Graz
Katharina Eisch-Angus (ed) University of Graz
Burkhard Pöttler (ed) University of Graz
Johann Verhovsek (ed) University of Graz

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Published

2024-09-19

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25364/9783903374300

governmentality studies, political anthropology, social transformation, critical university studies, humanities

Synopsis

Curiosity and commitment are driving forces of the cultural sciences and anthropology – but they also serve as buzzwords within the Janus-faced guidelines of increasingly entrepreneurial university cultures. The authors contributing to this volume address the neoliberal reorganisation of European universities with a strong focus on the developments in the humanities. They investigate how the use of scientific curiosity and responsibility across Europe is shaped by changed policies concerning university teaching, research and funding, and pursue the question of how the potential of a curious, socially engaged cultural research can be utilised to productively confront and counteract power-political transformations.

 

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Chapters

Chapters Pages PDF
Preface / Vorwort
Lydia Maria Arantes, Katharina Eisch-Angus, Burkhard Pöttler, Johann Verhovsek
10
PDF
Exploring the Neoliberal Transformation of European Universities
An Anthropological Rollercoaster Journey
Lydia Maria Arantes, Katharina Eisch-Angus
11-26
PDF
Den neoliberalen Umbau europäischer Universitäten erforschen
Eine kulturanthropologische Achterbahnfahrt
Lydia Maria Arantes, Katharina Eisch-Angus
27–42
PDF
Acting with the Community
Applied Anthropology in a New Perspective
Güldem Baykal Büyüksaraç
43–60
PDF
Kulturwissenschaft zwischen Ausbildungsanforderung und „unbedingter Universität“
Fragen an eine Angewandte Kulturwissenschaft zwischen Kreativwirtschaft und kritischer Kulturanalyse
Klaus Schönberger
61–77
PDF
Trügerische Imaginationen
Die „Restrukturierung“ der deutschen Universitäten aus der Perspektive der Europäischen Ethnologie
Johannes Moser
79–96
PDF
Impact – Dirty Word or Salvation of the Humanities?
Jürgen Barkhoff
97–112
PDF
Was Everything Better in the Past?
The Situation of the Universities in Finland
Ulrika Wolf-Knuts
113–131
PDF
Design Education and Research from Commitment to Curiosity and Beyond
Britta Kalkreuter
133–151
PDF
Images of Utopia
University Policies, Academic Practices & Social Changes
Sanja Potkonjak, Nevena Škrbić Alempijević
153–169
PDF
Neoliberalism and Coloniality are Two Sides of the Same Coin
Caroline Gatt
171–182
PDF
Author Biographies
183–185
PDF
Cover Curiosity and Commitment

Categories

Society & Social Research Art & Culture Politics Teaching & Learning
Copyright (c) 2024 Lydia Maria Arantes, Katharina Eisch-Angus, Burkhard Pöttler, Johann Verhovsek

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Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Author Biographies

Lydia Maria Arantes, University of Graz

Lydia Maria Arantes is a musician and an anthropologist, currently Assistant Professor at the Department of Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology (University of Graz). Her main areas of research and teaching include (textile) craft practices, (im)material culture, sensory ethnography, reflexive ethnography, ethno-psychoanalysis as well as ethnographic writing. 

Katharina Eisch-Angus, University of Graz

Katharina Eisch-Angus is a professor at the Department of Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology at the University of Graz, Austria. From her early fieldwork along Czech-German borders, and continuing with researching the narrative constitution of the society of security in British neighbourhoods, she follows contemporary power relations in everyday experience and memories, combined with methodological explorations in ethnography, cultural semiotics and ethno-psychoanalysis. 

Burkhard Pöttler, University of Graz

Burkhard Pöttler is a retired associate professor at the Department of Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology, University of Graz and was chair of the Curricula Commission from 2004 to 2019. His research fields comprise topics of historical anthropology and methods, material culture studies, technology in everyday culture and the history of the discipline. 

Johann Verhovsek, University of Graz

Johann Verhovsek is a senior lecturer at the Department of Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology at the University of Graz. His current teaching and research fields include qualitative (ethnographic) methods, theories of “culture”, postmigrant research approaches, anthropology of work, cultural turns, museology and the history of science. 

Güldem Baykal Büyüksaraç, Istanbul University

Güldem Baykal Büyüksaraç is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Istanbul University. She received her PhD degree in Anthropology from Columbia University, and completed her postdoctoral studies at the Institute for Middle East Studies of George Washington University. She has taught classes on cultural and political theory at Columbia, George Washington, and Boğaziçi universities. 

Klaus Schönberger, University of Klagenfurt

Klaus Schönberger is Professor of Cultural Anthropology at the Department of Cultural Analysis at the University of Klagenfurt/Celovec. He is the coordinator of the EU-Horizon 2010 Project TRACES. He also led several research projects at the Zurich University of the Arts which were at the interface between ethnography and research into the arts. 

Johannes Moser, LMU Munich

Johannes Moser, Professor and Chair for European Ethnology at the LMU Munich since 2006; M.A./PhD in European Ethnology 1987/1993 (Graz), postgraduate diploma in Sociology 1992 (IHS Vienna), Habilitation 2002 (Frankfurt/M); Academic Positions at the universities Graz, Frankfurt, Dresden; President of the ‘Deutsche Gesellschaft für Volkskunde’ (2015–2019); Dean, Vice Dean and Research Dean of the Faculty for the Study of Culture (2007–2015); Chair of the DFG Research Group ‘Urban Ethics’; Chair of the international PhD-Program ‘Transformations in European Societies’. 

Jürgen Barkhoff, Trinity College Dublin, University of Dublin

Jürgen Barkhoff is Professor of German (1776) at the Department of German in the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies at Trinity College, University of Dublin. From 2014 to 2022 he was Vice-Chair of the Executive Board of the Coimbra Group of European Universities. His main research areas are Medical Humanities and Identity Studies. From 2007 to 2011 he was Registrar of his University and from 2013 to 2018 he led the university-wide, interdisciplinary research theme ‘Identities in Transformation’. 

Ulrika Wolf-Knuts, Åbo Akademi University

Ulrika Wolf-Knuts is retired Professor for Nordic Folklore Studies at Åbo Akademi University in Åbo/Turku, Finland. In her research she has focused on popular belief systems, identity construction and Finland-Swedish folklore. When writing the article she was the Chancellor of Åbo Akademi University.

Britta Kalkreuter, Heriot-Watt University

Britta Kalkreuter studied at Cologne University and Trinity College Dublin and gained her PhD for a study in medieval architecture. She has lectured at Manchester Metropolitan University and now Heriot-Watt University where she is also Associate Dean. Her research connects design practice and theory with heritage studies to explore material practices, types of knowledge transmission and making experiences that prevail in local production scenarios and global design economies, with a focus on fundamental innovation, or transition. 

Sanja Potkonjak, University of Zagreb

Sanja Potkonjak is an associate professor at the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia. Her major interests are methodology, research ethics, post-socialism, deindustrialisation and aesthetics of memory. 

Nevena Škrbić Alempijević, University of Zagreb

Nevena Škrbić Alempijević is a professor at the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia. Her main research fields are anthropology of social memory, place and space, island studies, performance studies, and studies of carnivals, festivals and other public events.

Caroline Gatt, University of Graz

Caroline Gatt is an anthropologist (PhD Aberdeen) and theatre practitioner. She is Senior Postdoctoral Researcher and Co-PI of the project ‘(Musical) Improvisation and Ethics’ (Austrian Science Fund). Her publications include ‘Knowing by singing’, with V. Lembo, American Anthropologist special section (2022), ‘Breathing beyond embodiment’ Body and Society (2020), An ethnography of global environmentalism: Becoming Friends of the Earth (2018), and the multimodal volume The voices of the pages (2017/2018).