[Air-L] Call for Papers: Building the Post-Pandemic University

[Mark Carrigan]

Call for Papers: Building the Post-Pandemic University

In a matter of months, the world has changed beyond recognition. Covid-19
has led to an unprecedented reorganisation of everyday life, with half the
world’s population subject to lockdown measures at the peak of governmental
response to the pandemic. These measures are being eased across the world,
with uncertain and worrying consequences in the continued absence of the
vaccine which would herald a potential resolution of the current situation.
In its continued absence we face the necessity of institutionalising what
has been called ‘social distancing’ but is perhaps better described as
‘physical distancing’, given the capacity of digital platforms to
facilitate social interaction without the co-presence which is still
frequently seen as its defining characteristic.

The impending arrival of the forthcoming academic year means we urgently
need to grapple with what this crisis means for the future of the
university. How will higher education be transformed by lockdown and social
distancing? What university do we hope to work within after this crisis?
What contribution should we make to building this post-pandemic university?
The current operations of the university are reliant on the affordances of
digital platforms and this seems likely to grow in the coming years, even
if some face to face meetings resume in the name of blended learning and
research capacity. This includes digital platforms like Microsoft Teams and
Zoom being incorporated into the core operations of the university in a
manner which is likely to be difficult to unwind at a later date, as much
as it has served a clear purpose in the present crisis. For this reason
it’s essential we begin to incorporate the socio-technical into our
established accounts of higher education, opening up the ‘black box’ in
order to understand the role played by technology in building the
post-pandemic university.

However while we see digital technology as playing a crucial role in
response to this crisis, the questions which the sector faces are much more
than technical ones. Our intention is to facilitate a conversation which
bridges theory and practice, analysis and intervention, animated by a
shared concern about what this crisis means for the university and how we
ought to respond to it. If we want to understand the challenges facing
higher education, it is imperative this encompasses the range of potential
responses to these difficulties and the interests and ideals served by
these for the multitude of groups who will play a part in building the
post-pandemic university. We hope this will be a broad and multifaceted
conversation which brings together multidisciplinary expertise engaging
with an eclectic range of topics rotating around the core problematic of
‘building the post-pandemic university’. We imagine this would include
themes such as:

   - The built environment of the campus and how it is likely to change
   - The enactment of social distancing across the university’s activities
   - The impact of the pandemic on racialised, classed and gendered
   injustice
   - The implications of these changes for equality & diversity within the
   university
   - The impact of Covid-19 on the challenge of climate change
   - The search for new markets and products by education investors
   - The public role of the university and transition out of the crisis
   - Equality and diversity in the post-pandemic university
   - The geo-politics of Covid-19 and its relationship to global higher
   education
   - The challenge of academic mobility and the potential demise of the
   global conference circuit
   - The surveillance architecture inherent in the turn towards platforms
   - Labour relations during the crisis and what this means for the
   post-pandemic university
   - These are only suggestions and we welcome contributions on any topic
   which speaks to the broader theme of building the post-pandemic university,
   particularly if they also contribute to a broader exercise of mapping out
   the contours of the present crisis and possible transitions from it.

Please send 300 word abstracts to mark at markcarrigan.net by July 31st with
the subject line ‘Building the Post-Pandemic University’. We aim to inform
contributors of acceptance by August 10th for an online conference due to
take place at a date to be confirmed in September 2020. We hope this event
will be the starting point for an edited book so please indicate when
submitting your abstract if this is something which you might be interested
in contributing to.

We will release full details of the conference format soon after the
confirmation of acceptance but at this stage we expect the bulk of the
event to take place through Zoom with an as yet to be confirmed
asynchronous component which will extend participation beyond those who are
speaking at the conference.

*I often work flexible hours that are outside the ‘traditional’
09.00-17.00, Monday to Friday only office hours. If this e-mail arrives
outside of your own preferred working pattern, please do not feel obligated
to respond until your office hours have resumed.*

Postdoctoral Research Associate
Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge
www.markcarrigan.net  | @soc_imagination
<http://www.twitter.com/soc_imagination/>
www.cpgjcam.net | @cpgjcam <http://www.twitter.com/cpgjcam/>

*The Isolation Pod: *A theoretical podcast about Covid-19
https://anchor.fm/theisolationpod