This open access book offers a unique and refreshing view on working with social theory in higher education. Using engaging first-person accounts coupled with critical intellectual analysis, the authors demonstrate how theory is grappled with as part of an ongoing practice rather than a momentary disembodied encounter. In a structure that creates a space for relational dialogue, each chapter is followed by a response from another author, demonstrating the varied interpretive possibilities of social theory. Collectively the authors invite the reader to engage with them in questioning the usefulness of social theory in higher education teaching and research, in considering its possibilities and limits, and in experiencing the opportunity it offers to understand ourselves and our work differently. Written in a way that is scholarly yet accessible, the contributors explore how social theories can be used to think through issues that are emerging as key social and political concerns in higher education and beyond. The book will be of interest to advanced undergraduates, postgraduates, and early-career academics, as well as established scholars.
Chapter 1 Other peoples ideas: An introduction to using social theory
in higher education.
Chapter 2 Sit Down, be Humble: The influence of the
Work of Linda Tuhiwai Smith on our research.
Chapter 3 The decolonial
imperative - text and context: a response to Amani Bell and Gulwanyang Moran
.
Chapter 4 After Belonging: Aileen Moreton-Robinsons I Still Call
Australia Home .
Chapter 5 In belonging: a response to Timothy Laurie .-
Chapter 6 Deploying Rose and Abi-Rached to make sense of the rise of the
brain sciences in the field of violence against women.
Chapter 7 What do
we talk about when we talk about neuro? A response to Suzanne Egan.
Chapter
8 The power, passions, and perils of identity: On Chantal Mouffe, .
Chapter
9 Connections, engagements and troubles: a response to Remy Y.S. Low.-
Chapter 10 The Foggy Window: Passive empathy and the fight for testimonial
reading in neoliberal higher education.
Chapter 11 Performing empathy with
neoliberalism, or Kendall Jenneron the streets, Thomas Gradgrind in the
sheets: a response to Lauren Weber.
Chapter 12 Understanding higher
education enrolment through Michel Foucaults biopolitics.
Chapter 13
Students, biopolitics, and state racism: a response to Ren-Hao Xu.
Chapter
14 Wrestling with monsters: critique, climate change, and comets.
Chapter 15
Still wrestling with monsters: a response to Pat Norman.
Chapter 16
Dialogues between activist knowledge and Southern Theory .
Chapter 17
Approximate Geographies: a response to José Fernando Serrano Amaya.
Chapter
18 The historian as pedagogue: on Hayden Whites practical past.
Chapter 19
What stories to tell: a response to Remy Low .
Chapter 20 The good
university? Colourful histories, ongoing troubles and changing contexts.-
Chapter 21 The good university examined: a response to Meenakshi Krishnaraj,
Ren-Hao Xu, and Pat Norman.
Chapter 22 How we use social theory: common
threads and concluding thoughts.
Remy Y.S. Low is Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney, Australia
Suzanne Egan is Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences, Western Sydney University, Australia
Amani Bell is Associate Professor at the University of Sydney, Australia
