The Corporate University: An E-interview by Emil Marmol with Dave Hill, Alpesh Maisuria, Anthony Nocella, and Michael Parenti

Authors

  • Emil Marmol PhD student at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education - University of Toronto
  • Dave Hill Research Professor of Education at Anglia Ruskin University
  • Alpesh Maisuria Senior Lecturer in Education at University of East London
  • Anthony Nocella Visiting Professor in the School of Education at Hamline University and Senior Fellow of the Dispute Resolution Institute at the Hamline Law School
  • Michael Parenti N/A

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14288/ce.v6i19.185102

Keywords:

Academic Freedom, Higher Education, University, Neoliberalism, Privatization, Commercialization, Marketization, Curriculum, Research, Marxism, Democracy, Corporate, Funding, Investment, Trustees, Regents, Governance

Abstract

Since the neo-liberal turn, corporate investment in universities has accelerated as the withdrawal of government funding, among other factors, has further exposed universities to market forces. While this process offers numerous benefits for corporations and wealthy individuals, it has been mostly detrimental for students, educators, and the public at large. In this interview, international scholars Dave Hill, Alpesh Maisuria, Anthony Nocella, and Michael Parenti broadly explain why corporations have been aggressively investing in universities. They address the numerous ways that corporate involvement in university activity negatively impacts academic freedom, research outcomes, and the practice of democracy. The interview ends on a hopeful note by presenting examples of resistance against corporate influence. Their analyses focus primarily on the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada.

Author Biographies

Emil Marmol, PhD student at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education - University of Toronto

Emil Marmol is a PhD student at the University of Toronto. He holds a Master of Science degree from The London School of Economics and Political Science, a Bachelor of Arts degree from University of California Santa Barbara, and a certificate in Adult Education from the UC Berkeley Extension program. His master’s thesis focused on the democratic shortcomings of globalized corporate media and the importance of protecting network neutrality. Emil’s doctoral research explores noncommercial news sources as pedagogical tools in the classroom and issues of critical media literacy. His website www.comparenews.org helps to promote critical media literacy by allowing users to compare and contrast the differences in content and form between commercial and non-commercial news websites. He can be reached at emilmarmol@gmail.com.

Dave Hill, Research Professor of Education at Anglia Ruskin University

Dave Hill is Research Professor of Education at Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford, England; Visiting Professor at the Universities of Athens, Greece; Limerick, Ireland; and Middlesex, London, England. He chief edits the Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, www.jceps.com, a free, online, peer-referred international journal which has been downloaded more than a million times since he founded it in 2003. He co-founded the Hillcole Group of Radical Left Educators in England and chaired it 1989-2001. He has 25 books published and in-press, and over a hundred chapters and academic articles, Dave is a Marxist academic and political activist. His academic work focuses on issues of neoliberalism, neo-conservatism, capitalism, class, `race', resistance and socialist/ Marxist education/education for equality. As a Marxist political activist, has fought 13 elections at local, national and European levels and been an elected regional trade union leader. In terms of Direct Action, he has recently been tear-gassed while on Left demonstrations in Ankara and in Athens. He lectures worldwide to academic and activist/ trade union groups and co-organises, with Kostas Skordoulis, the annual ICCE conference (International Conference on Critical Education). The 2014 conference is at http://www.eled.auth.gr/icce2014/

Alpesh Maisuria, Senior Lecturer in Education at University of East London

Alpesh Maisuria is a Senior Lecturer in Education at University of East London, UK. Alpesh’s broad interest is on the neoliberalisation of education, and the effects on social class stratification in England and Sweden. His research focuses on the development of Marxist educational theory, particularly using a critical realist perspective to research the lived realities of individuals to explore class consciousness through cultural mechanisms, and the potential for class formation.

Anthony Nocella, Visiting Professor in the School of Education at Hamline University and Senior Fellow of the Dispute Resolution Institute at the Hamline Law School

Anthony J. Nocella II, Ph.D., award-winning author, community organizer, and educator is a Senior Fellow of the Dispute Resolution Institute at the Hamline Law School and Editor of the Peace Studies Journal. Nocella is the Executive Director of the Institute for Critical Animal Studies and Co-Director of Save the Kids. His most recent book is From Education to Incarceration: Dismantling the School to Prison Pipeline (2014).

Michael Parenti, N/A

Michael Parenti is an internationally known, award winning scholar, with a Ph.D. in political science from Yale University.  His twenty-five books include The Face of Imperialism (2011); God and His Demons (2010); and The Assassination of Julius Caesar (2003). He recently published an "ethnic memoir" of his childhood entitled Waiting for Yesterday: Pages from a Street Kid's Life. Hundreds of his articles have been published in scholarly journals, popular magazines and newspapers, books of collected readings, and online publications.  Dr. Parenti lectures frequently across North America and abroad.  His work covers a wide range of subjects, including politics, history, empire, wealth, class power, culture, ideology, media, environment, religion, gender, and ethnic life. For further information, visit his website: www.michaelparenti.org.

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Published

2015-10-15

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 19 (2015)

Section

Articles

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