Academic citizenship and a world in crisis

Abstract

In this paper I consider how the university might contribute to a regenerated commons. I discuss the problems of global citizenship as a heuristic, putting in its place, Appiah’s notion of cosmopolitanism to describe the Global Humanities bachelor program at my own higher education institution—Roskilde University in Denmark. I then consider the academic citizen as one participating in a space of dialogue and exchange where differences are recognized and the world is read through the lens of pluralism rather than over-confident and singular commitments to social justice, human rights or some idealized commons that threatens yet another dominant/dominating worldview. I end the paper with a reflection on the theme of hopelessness—viewing universities as central to creating academic citizens geared to the logic of deficit-thinking, endless development and abstract progress. Rather than trying to overcome hopelessness, we might be better advised to embrace it as one aspect of a broad and inclusive humanistic imagination; one where there are many knowledges but where most will not be encountered, and where there are no simple solutions