In September 2020, Dr Emanuela Girei and Dr Stephen Allen convened an online seminar which explored alternative and heterodox forms of higher education. The seminar was hosted by the Organization Studies (OS) Cluster at Sheffield University Management School. The speakers were Dr Nivedita Kothiyal (York Management School, UK) and Dr Catherine N. Butcher (OECS Inc.).
The seminar explored whether and how higher education can become a site for alternative forms of education which are able to challenge and disrupt existing geopolitical asymmetries in knowledge production and address the perpetuation of existing inequalities among our students.
An Alternative University, Dr Nivedita Kothiyal
This paper discusses the case of Swaraj University in India – a non-formal, experiential, locally-embedded institution. A novel experiment in life-long learning, Swaraj University provides an incisive and instructive criticism of modernity, colonialism, academic capitalism, and commodification of learning. The paper discusses the significance of Swaraj University as an alternative to modern, colonized, neoliberal universities, whose worlds we inhabit.
Heterodox higher education institutions, Catherine N. Butcher
This presentation draws on empirical case studies of four heterodox higher education institutions in the US, Spain, and India in which students democratically participate in institutional governance and operations, and in which the educational experiences of students, faculty and administrative staff were radically different from what exist in contemporary higher education.
Video
(Please note that part of the seminar is not available due to technical problems during the recording.)
