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How do we defend the teaching of modern languages and cultures at universities

How do we defend the teaching of modern languages and cultures at universities. Failure of language-based cultural studies to make strategically important impact. Proof? A large series of botched-up international interventions Will the next botched-up foreign policy action take place in Europe?.

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How do we defend the teaching of modern languages and cultures at universities

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  1. How do we defend the teachingof modern languages and cultures at universities • Failure of language-based cultural studies to make strategically important impact. • Proof? A large series of botched-up international interventions • Will the next botched-up foreign policy action take place in Europe?

  2. How do we defend the teachingof modern languages and cultures at universities • Let me quote the British documentary film maker Adam Curtis (Bitter Lake, 2015) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7KYkBo98vc • 1.56.56.-2.04 • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvyeWaVMDrI • 56.35

  3. How do we defend the teachingof modern languages and cultures at universities • Systematic failure of Western interventions makes the strategic importance of language-based cultural studies extremely topical. • Not only for “fragile states” in the Third World but potentially for Europe as well • Politicians NEED to know what myths national communities are labouring under • Literature and the arts are a potent strategic medium to access local cultural discourse

  4. How do we defend the teachingof modern languages and cultures at universities • We need to communicate to politicians the strategic importance of cultural studies within intercultural communication • Problem: one-sided communication from West to East, from West to the Third World • Little understanding of local languages and cultures in the West. Western military interventions without proper knowledge of local conditions

  5. How do we defend the teachingof modern languages and cultures at universities • Little strategic information about different cultural discourse in different cultures of Europe. • Do we know what people are thinking today in Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czech Republic, the countries of former Yugoslavia? • Does it matter that we do not know? • Does it matter that they do not really know what the West is about?

  6. How do we defend the teachingof modern languages and cultures at universities • Little strategic information about different cultural discourse in different cultures of Europe. • Do we know what people are thinking today in Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czech Republic, the countries of former Yugoslavia? • Does it matter that we do not know? • Does it matter that they do not really know what the West is about?

  7. How do we defend the teachingof modern languages and cultures at universities • The British Academy is extremely worried by these insufficiences and lack of communication. • Publication Understanding State Fragility (May 2015): Dealing with the botched up international crises:

  8. How do we defend the teachingof modern languages and cultures at universities “To re-orient the socio-economic, political and institutional characteristics of a place requires caution, sensitivity and a depth of knowledge and understanding.

  9. How do we defend the teachingof modern languages and cultures at universities • “The declining investment in language and area studies has reduced the requisite pool of relevant expertise. • “Long-term investment in cultural academic assets is of profound importance for our ability to understand, to engage and to make a positive difference in the world.

  10. How do we defend the teachingof modern languages and cultures at universities • “There has been a failure to seek to acquire a deeper understanding of local context. Declining interest and investment in Language and Area Studies has ensured that access to deep knowledge about countries in conflict have become limited.

  11. How do we defend the teachingof modern languages and cultures at universities • “The 2003 US-led invasion to Iraq provides the most egregious case of wilful neglect, with catastrophic and predictable consequences. British Prime Minister Tony Blair was wholly uninterested in Iraq as a complex and puzzling society.

  12. How do we defend the teachingof modern languages and cultures at universities • “UK soldiers in Afghanistan were aliens at sea in a world they did not understand.”

  13. How do we defend the teachingof modern languages and cultures at universities 2011, a cultural studies conference in Berlin: “CIA was surprised by the arrival of the Arab Spring.” It did not study cultural developments in the Arab world.

  14. How do we defend the teachingof modern languages and cultures at universities Prague Writers Festival, October 2014: • A common experience of being marginalised (Moroccan writers, Czech writers) • Both cultures are passive victims of one-sided flow of information from (mostly) English-speaking power centres in the West. • Limited knowledge of foreign languages in the West. Little access to local cultural and political discourse “on the periphery”.

  15. How do we defend the teachingof modern languages and cultures at universities Pernicious impact of creeping managerialism in universities • Universities where earning money becomes the only measure of “success” fail to fulfil their vital social and strategic role • Language-based cultural studies must be regarded as strategically important for national security

  16. How do we defend the teachingof modern languages and cultures at universities Removal of democratic accountability. • Academics pitted against managers: Stefan Collini, What are Universities For, London, New York, Penguin, 2012, and this list of resources: http://publicuniversity.org.uk/articles-and-resources/)

  17. How do we defend the teachingof modern languages and cultures at universities Removal of democratic accountability. • The commercial principle destroys the idea of university. • The university must be based on pursuit of new ideas, not on the lowest common denominator, determined by the market.

  18. How do we defend the teachingof modern languages and cultures at universities Removal of democratic accountability. • The commercial principle destroys the idea of university. • The university must be based on pursuit of new ideas, not on the lowest common denominator, determined by the market.

  19. How do we defend the teachingof modern languages and cultures at universities Christopher Beedham, THES: “When students become customers, the game is up. You change from delivering a university education to delivering customer satisfaction. The two are incompatible. • With the introduction of the market system, the mission of UK universities changed from the pursuit of truth to the pursuit of money.” • The pursuit of truth must be reclaimed by academics

  20. How do we defend the teachingof modern languages and cultures at universities Christopher Beedham, THES: “When students become customers, the game is up. You change from delivering a university education to delivering customer satisfaction. The two are incompatible. • With the introduction of the market system, the mission of UK universities changed from the pursuit of truth to the pursuit of money.” • The pursuit of truth must be reclaimed by academics

  21. How do we defend the teachingof modern languages and cultures at universities Glasgow University: • 110 academics have written to the Scottish government demanding a reinstatement of democratic elections of university top officers:

  22. How do we defend the teachingof modern languages and cultures at universities Glasgow University: • 110 academics have written to the Scottish government demanding a reinstatement of democratic elections of university top officers:

  23. How do we defend the teachingof modern languages and cultures at universities Glasgow University: A university is a public institution, not a private company. The Principal earns the equivalent of the combined salaries of the UK Prime Minister and Scottish First Minister, yet at Glasgow the only vote the Principal has had to date is a vote of no confidence at a mass meeting of staff: http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/education/strike-averted-after-u-turn-by-university-1.1037036:

  24. How do we defend the teachingof modern languages and cultures at universities Glasgow University: “An elected position would ensure that the Principal had the support of Senate as the senior university body on academic matters. The head of a University is the head of a University, not the CEO of a private company, and should be the leader of a community of scholars whose support he has through public endorsement.”

  25. How do we defend the teachingof modern languages and cultures at universities From the profit principle, Language and Culture studies are uninteresting. Glasgow University had five different language and culture departments. As has happened elsewhere, they were merged into a single School and in 2011, there was an attempt to close down most of it.

  26. How do we defend the teachingof modern languages and cultures at universities The proposals to close most of the SMLC down was received with outrage by students and the public. While it was difficult amongst managers to find support for “expensive” language and culture courses, the students and the public were strongly aware of the social/strategic importance of the subjects and fought for it tooth and nail. There were student demonstrations:

  27. How do we defend the teachingof modern languages and cultures at universities • The University of Glasgow became the subject of nationwide media criticism, which went on for several months. • (More than fifty articles were published in the press, see http://savesmlc.wordpress.com/news/.)

  28. How do we defend the teachingof modern languages and cultures at universities • http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-13873709 • http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/herald-letters/generating-income-should-not-be-main-purpose-of-universities-1.1089757 • http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/education/glasgow-students-call-for-principal-to-resign-1.1092780 • http://news.stv.tv/politics/271022-playwright-calls-for-funds-to-promote-vulnerable-modern-languages/ • Sir Tom Stoppard: • http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/scotland/newsid_9594000/9594735.stm

  29. How do we defend the teachingof modern languages and cultures at universities "It is not a matter of just arguing the case convincingly. It is a question of power. It is naive to think that those who shape universities need to be given convincing arguments that their policies are wrong and that when they have seen the light, things will change. Those who run universities are interested in power, not in argumentation. They will continue doing what suits them because they can. What are we going to do about it?“ • (See http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/comment/letters/named-but-not-shamed/2014408.article)

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