The specre of '68, student activism and the 'student university'

A spectre is haunting UK higher education, that spectre is 1968. The protests which took place during the late 1960s represent the high water mark for student activism in Europe and abroad. Inspired by student protests and the civil rights movement in America, and the Prague Spring and similar uprisings in eastern bloc countries, students and workers joined forces in central Europe to oppose the Vietnam war, demand economic and political reform, and to lobby for greater participation in the university management. During protests in Rome students there closed the university there for 12 days while British students demonstrating against the Vietnam war attacked the Defence Secretary, the Secretary of State for Education and the Home Secretary. Spanish students, protesting against the sanctioning of a mass for the soul of Adolf Hitler, closed the university of Madrid for over a month. Most spectacularly however were the events in Paris in May 1968. The Union Nationale des Étudiants de France called a march to protest the earlier police invasion of the Sorbonne which resulted in riots and the arrest of hundreds of students. The widespread condemnation of the heavy handed reaction of the authorities, and the students support from trade unions and wildcat strikes and occupations, brought France to the very brink of revolution.[1]

Student protest never disappeared from our streets, but since the 1960s it has been marginalised, separated from wider political forces such as the trade union movement and stifled by the close association between NUS and the Labour party with its progressive shift to the ‘centre’. More recently however events have conspired to re-ignite the flame of student protest. The anger towards the introduction of tuition fees has simmered away for over a decade and the proposed hike in UK fees saw large scale protest and unrest in the streets of London last year. This increase in activism and political awareness coincides with the burgeoning anti-capitalist movement in the form of ‘Occupy Wall Street’ and copy-cat occupations in London etc inspired by another ‘Spring’, this time the Arab Spring.

Already the increased buying power of undergraduates soon to be paying £9,000 per annum for their university education has inspired some institutions to increase contact hours, improve teaching standards and improve campus facilities and accommodation for students in an effort to appear to be ‘better value for money’.[2] The student movement on the other hand seems momentarily perplexed by their increased clout, brought on by the very changes which to which they opposed themselves so vehemently. ‘Students not Consumers’ read one banner during a protest which took place on the campus of Swansea University (inspired perhaps by the title of an earlier article in the New Statesman), a call which has been echoed in various editorials and even a statement from one pro vice-chancellor.[3] The call for increased student participation in the running of universities and control over the delivery of content is certainly not a new phenomenon, and certainly anyone with any knowledge of the structure of the medieval university would see curious parallels which may perhaps inform future debate.

The medieval universities organised themselves around two broad archetypes. Both were in a sense ‘teaching universities’ as the Humboldtian research university was a 19th century development. The first and perhaps most important archetype was the universitas magistrorum et scholarium or ‘Masters Universities’ of Northern Europe, such as Oxford, Cambridge and Paris. The Masters university were those organised and administered by the professors and teachers who worked within the corporation. It is this model of the university which survives to this day, with every institution in the modern world organised along similar lines. In medieval Bologna however, the alma mater of all European universities, the university existed in a radically different form. The ‘students universities’ were so called because their corporate structure was entirely controlled by the student body. They elected their own representatives, they paid the salaries of the professors and enforced strict regulations concerning the number of teaching hours, the pedagogical methodology and even the content to be delivered.[4]

To the modern mind the fact that the students controlled the university may seem startling, and to the permanent residents of university towns across the country perhaps even horrifying. It is worth bearing in mind however that these students were not fresh-faced undergraduates of 17 or 18 such as now, but were on average much older scholars who would have usually had some prior training in the Arts, which was the equivalent in the universities in northern Europe of an undergraduate degree. In a sense the Bolognese student university was more like a university controlled by post-graduates. The increased appetite for ‘informed choice’ in modern UK institutions, for some, spells the end of the Humboldtian research institution or, at least, the birth of a two tier university system with some institutions focused more on teaching. What if, buoyed by the greater buying power and the amplified confidence and vocalism brought on by the recent increase in activism, students call for a return to the medieval model of the ‘student university’, albeit in a revised format for the modern world?

This ‘student university’ model arose organically within medieval Bologna, it was not founded or established in the modern sense, and the institution developed as a result of the unique conditions in which the scholars and professors found themselves. The power within the university in Bologna was not won by political activism per se but bought by the relative wealth of its students, and the professors reliance on those students for their livelihood. The professors at Oxford, Cambridge and Paris meanwhile, as a result of these institutions strong ecclesiastical association, were usually beneficed clergy. They had an independent income stream and thus were not as vulnerable to the demands of the scholars, who could withdraw their fees if unsatisfied. The medieval students in Oxford were criticised in the 70s by Allan Cobban, perhaps himself influenced by the spectre of ’68, for their seeming lack of desire to try and wrestle control of the university out of the hands of the Masters. For Cobban the medieval undergraduate at Oxford was too naive and immature for the rigours of university governance, not to mention his (medieval students were exclusively male) heavy workload. Perhaps there is a parallel to be drawn here: To what extent are undergraduates willing to take on the fiscal responsibility, or capable of administering the bureaucratic machine, that is the modern university? One other noticeable feature of the ‘student university’ is the relatively short lived nature of these institutions. While Bologna, Sienna, Padua et al are all successful universities today, the student-run element disappeared during the fourteenth century. There was nothing inevitable about the failure of the student university, but when the Communes (i.e the towns in which the university were hosted) began to pay for some, and then all, of the professors’ salaries this short lived experiment was over. The students never lost their say in university affairs in Bologna but they no longer had the power to ensure that their voice was heard by withdrawing their fees.

What the history of the medieval university brings to the modern discourse on the future of Higher Education is the certainty that whomever pays for the professors holds the power. With the slashing of education budgets, and the increase in tuition fees, the balance of power is once again shifting in favour of the students. The age of the average undergraduate today is older than that of medieval Oxford (sometimes as young as 14), but not as high as that of medieval Bologna, nor do the students today have the same level of prior education. So perhaps today’s undergraduates are still not best placed to decide what they need from their education system. What of graduate participation? Surely there can be no objection to students who have been through the education system taking a more active role in re-shaping it based on their experiences? To an extent this already happens, but the former students at the centre of administering and governing the university are all academics, and academics educated within the research institution. Undergraduate training took the form of the prerequisite training for research in that chosen field, but with academic posts become fewer and fewer, and student intake rising, this is perhaps no longer a sustainable model. This once again resurrects the ghost of the ‘student university’, but perhaps one with greater participation from the alumni community but the realisation of this alternative seems as fraught with difficulties as asking youngsters fresh out of school to take on the responsibility of administering the university.

It seems inevitable that the Higher Education system in Britain will become more student led, more student focused and more concerned on delivering content than research. This is not necessarily a bad thing, pedagogy is not and never has been a high priority of UK universities. Greater student and alumni participation is also surely to be welcomed, as the beneficiaries of the education system it is only right that they have a say in the content that is being delivered, but the adoption of the medieval style ‘student university’ model is perhaps a step too far. Or, is it?



[1] There is a fantastic display of photographs of these events and similar ones across Europe contained in the “Museo Europeo degli Studenti” in Bologna.
[2] http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/mar/19/students-demand-value
[3] http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/cultural-capital/2011/07/students-work-education
http://studentactivistdiary.co.uk/index.php/swansea-says-students-as-partners-not-consumers-november-9th-campaign-action/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/mortarboard/2009/nov/03/higher-education-framework1
http://www.birminghampost.net/news/west-midlands-education-news/2011/07/01/university-chief-says-students-should-not-be-treated-as-consumers-65233-28979402/#

[4] The best summary of the history medieval Universities is still Rashdall’s The universities of Europe in the Middle Ages despite the recent flurry in studies of the individual institutions. The collection of essays edited by Hilde de Ridder-Symoens called A History of the University in Europe provides a more up to date and nuanced study for those wishing to expand their reading.

London's Burning

Today we're fortunate to have a guest post by Scott Jenkins, a postgraduate at Swansea University (UK). Hopefully, this will be the first of many more posts. Welcome, Scott!

*****

Between the 6^th and the 10^th of August 2011 rioting engulfed England’s capital London and widespread looting was reported in several other urban centres across England. The press gleefully reported the incident, with minute by minute accounts, interactive maps showing flashpoints of the disturbance and long sweeping aerial shots of buildings ablaze. In the meantime politicians and community leaders fell about one another in a rush to condemn those responsible, and the British judiciary worked through the night processing those 3,100 individuals arrested.  In the end five people died, sixteen others injured and a total of £200 million worth of property was damaged.

The riots began after the police shooting of Mark Duggan, a 29 year old man during an attempted arrest. A peaceful march was arranged by friends and family of the deceased. This peaceful protest deteriorated shortly after nightfall into rioting and looting. The following evening the disturbances were repeated but this time the violence was more widespread with similar and significant outbreaks reported across the city. Night after night this pattern was repeated, and copy-cat riots engulfed the city centres of Birmingham, Bristol, Nottingham and elsewhere. 

These seemingly unconnected incidents, by people who mostly had not known the victim or had close association with the issue which supposedly sparked the violence was roundly condemned as ‘pointless’ and with ‘no justification’, ‘needless and opportunistic’ crime.  The Prime Minister David Cameron, spoke of the ‘sickening scenes of ...looting, vandalising, thieving and robbing’. The majority of politicians blamed a ‘small minority’ who were causing the trouble, who seemingly did not fear the agents of law and order.  A ‘tough crackdown’ was promised and the use of water-cannon in the UK mainland, hitherto unprecedented, was under discussion by senior politicians and Scotland Yard.[1]

In the aftermath of the rioting numerous intellectuals stepped forward to espouse their own explanation or interpretation for the events, and the motives of the protagonists. The historian David Starkey appeared on BBC current affairs show ‘Newsnight’, and like a Mary Whitehouse for the 21^st Century, blamed the riots on the effect of rap culture. "A particular sort of violent, destructive, nihilistic, gangster culture has become the fashion" he said, in an analysis which appeared as outdated as it was utterly irrelevant.[2]

Yet this got me wondering, my own field of historical research is concerned with massed urban unrest committed by swarms of seemingly lawless youths. The students who attended Oxford University in the Middle Ages had a reputation for violence, looting, thieving and robbery which by comparison makes the London rioters seem positively law abiding.   Similarly this behaviour has been dismissed by historians without any attempt at engaging with cause or motive. 

Perhaps a return...

Stay tuned. A guest post might be coming soon...

Where the Medieval Isn't......

This is a post about where one would hope to find a medieval reference of some kind, but sadly didn't.

I happened to have the radio on this morning and was half listening to a MPR show called Midmorning hosted by Kerri Miller. She had a doctor on who was musing about her career choices. One of the things this doctor said was that in medicine it is a common thing to talk about "the time of the giants." The time in the not too distant past when doctors were doctors, gave preeminent care, diagnosed accurately with the merest of glances etc....I'm probably exagerating a couple smidges.

First, the immediate thing that jumped to mind was the Old English phrase "the work of giants," anything lasting and worthy was the work of giants, whether the remnants of a city, or a passing wondrous sword.

Second, and though not medieval draws on medieval and early Renaissance stories about such, is Newton's statement about seeing further because he has sat on the shoulders of giants. But that wasn't referenced in the discussion either.

Third, and last, I of course thought of the ubi sunt motif and the ideas of a golden age. Yes, some will be quick to point out that this isn't technically medieval either and predates the medieval some way. And you'd be quite right. But, I'd rejoin that the medieval period lifted the ubi sunt and ideas regarding a past golden age (separate ideas that often appear together) to an artform and refinement not see before.

Still, the point of this short post is that somewhere in the discussion on the "time of the giants" I'd have hoped for some sort of medieval reference, or even to Newton since the speaker was in the sciences, that the idea isn't a unique one to medicine and medical practioners. But alas, no. I was disappointed. And now you know that story.

Norway, Templars, and Christian Language that Kills

And now I post this yet again (from 1/9/11) in light of what's happened in Norway and in light of how much the killer seems to have been influenced by voices coming out of the US.You can see some of his manifesto here (see especially after 6:56). Then, read some of the Norwegian killer's favorite writer, Robert Spencer: 

*****

This is an edit of a post from 3/25/10 (see original here).  It's inspired by a really ill thought-out article by Jack Shafer at Slate.com, called "In defense of inflamed rhetoric."  Well, Mr. Shafer, I'm no fan of "inflamed rhetoric" and here's why:

*****

(image: crusaders killing Jews, 13th c. MS)

In May 1096, Christians attacked the Jews of Speyer.  The bishop of Speyer protected the Jews & arrested a couple of the perpetrators.  This ended the violence at Speyer.  The Christians, however, moved north, up the Rhine, to Worms and then to Mainz.  They massacred the Jewish communities they found in those cities, over the armed resistance of the archbishop of Mainz.  From Mainz, the Christians split up, with 1 segment moving down the Moselle river valley to Trier and Metz, killing a few and forcibly converting the rest of the Jews in those cities.  The other segment headed north from Mainz to Cologne, where they found that the bishop had moved the Jews out of Cologne & to a number of surrounding communities.  It didn't matter.  The Christians found them and massacred them all. 

CFP

Please forward to all and sundry.


The Heroic Age is currently inviting papers on the following topics:

LAST CALL: Issue 16: Alcuin and His Impact

Alcuin spans the Anglo-Saxon and Continental worlds and his influence is
felt far beyond his own period and place. This issue seeks to explore
the man, his times, and his influence on his contemporaries and on
subsequent generations.

Articles should be 7000 words including bibliography and endnotes, and
conform to The Heroic Age's in-house style. Instructions may be found
under Submission Instructions. All submissions will be reviewed by two
readers according to a double-blind policy. All submissions should be
sent to Larry Swain.

Issue 17: Carolingian Border-Lands

This issue seeks to explore the lands and peoples surrounding the
Carolingian kingdom(s) and the relationship between empire and
"periphery". Possible topics might include, but not be limited to: the
Spanish March, Carolingians and England and Ireland, the Scandinavian
countries, Carolingian "foreign policy" and trade,
cross-border/cultural/linguistic influences, Italy, Byzantine Empire and
the Carolingians, Saxons, Avars and Slavs just to name a few. The focus
is on the regions surrounding the Carolingians and possibly Carolingian
relationships with those borderlands whether political, religious, or
cultural.

Articles should be 7000 words including bibliography and endnotes, and
conform to The Heroic Age's in-house style. Instructions may be found
under Submission Instructions. All submissions will be reviewed by two
readers according to a double-blind policy. All submissions should be
sent to Larry Swain.

Issue 18: Occitan Poetry

We would like to invite submissions for the special 2012 issue of HA on
Occitan poetry, edited by Anna Klosowska (Miami U. of OH). We are
interested in submissions including but not limited to the following
topics and approaches:

editions or translations of a short text or texts or a portion of a
longer text (especially lesser known texts)
transnational and postcolonial approaches, Jewish, Arabic,
Mediterranean, Near Eastern, and cultural studies
feminism, queer theory, Marxism, psychoanalysis, history of emotions,
history of subjectivity, critical animal studies
philology, musicology, poetics, manuscript study, material history and
history of ideas, medievalism
Publication: June 2012 (online)
Final revisions due: March 1, 2012
Response from anonymous readers by: December 1, 2012
Submission due: July 1, 2011

Submissions should be 3000 words including bibliography and endnotes,
and conform to The Heroic Age's in-house style. Instructions may be
found under Submission Instructions. All submissions will be reviewed by
two readers according to a double-blind policy. All submissions should
be sent to Anna Klosowska, Special Issue Editor.
--
Larry Swain

Why I write/ Why I wrote & The "Next" Step: Not the End

This blog is/ was the result of my reaction to a specific moment of time. It began at the end of May 2007, just a couple of weeks after the massacre at Virginia Tech (my home institution). I thought I had something to say, especially because I was an academic, and needed somewhere to say it. And people wanted to hear it; I was warmly welcomed into a community of blogging medievalists that already existed. In turn, this blog has created new friendships and academic collaborations. I have not, for a moment, regretted my decision to create and maintain this blog. Every once in a while, I even got to see evidence that people were reading this blog (and not just at Kalamazoo).

As I have written elsewhere, I always saw this blog as simply one part of a larger effort - an effort to bring academia back into the world -- something Tony Grafton and Jim Grossman have recently called for (though my decision predates their essay). Blogging is a part of that. Tweeting is a part of that. Public talks hosted by my home institution are parts of that. Op-eds for the local paper are parts of that. And there's more.

As some of you now know, this year I'm running for political office.

I'm running for County Board of Supervisors (here in VA, this is a partisan, elected office that's "above" town council).
It's a part-time position, so if elected I'll keep my research and teaching duties as well. But this coming election cycle was an opportunity to take another step in attempting to engage academia with the public. Our county has problems (whose doesn't?) but it has possibilities as well, and I have a skillset - particularly as an academic, perhaps even as a medievalist, and one with a young family to boot - that I can bring to bear as we tackle both. We need fresh perspectives, from people who can think, who can argue, and who can listen. Scholars are researchers, innovators, teachers, and students all at once. Sentences like "It's always been done this way" aren't adequate explantion; they're excuses. No more.

So, this may be the end of my participation in this blog. Then again, I may be posting much more. I just don't know right now. I do know, however, that this blog has always been just a tool, one part of a larger, core mission that will continue on, again, anew.

This is, as you surely know by now, not the end.

An Empire of Memory: The Legend of Charlemagne, the Franks, and Jerusalem before the First Crusade

the book

Now for your buying pleasure:

Beginning shortly after Charlemagne's death in 814, the inhabitants of his historical empire looked back upon his reign and saw in it an exemplar of Christian universality - Christendom. They mapped contemporary Christendom onto the past and so, during the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries, the borders of his empire grew with each retelling, almost always including the Christian East. Although the pull of Jerusalem on the West seems to have been strong during the eleventh century, it had a more limited effect on the Charlemagne legend. Instead, the legend grew during this period because of a peculiar fusion of ideas, carried forward from the ninth century but filtered through the social, cultural, and intellectual developments of the intervening years.

Paradoxically, Charlemagne became less important to the Charlemagne legend. The legend became a story about the Frankish people, who believed they had held God's favour under Charlemagne and held out hope that they could one day reclaim their special place in sacred history. Indeed, popular versions of the Last Emperor legend, which spoke of a great ruler who would reunite Christendom in preparation for the last battle between good and evil, promised just this to the Franks. Ideas of empire, identity, and Christian religious violence were potent reagents. The mixture of these ideas could remind men of their Frankishness and move them, for example, to take up arms, march to the East, and reclaim their place as defenders of the faith during the First Crusade.

An Empire of Memory uses the legend of Charlemagne, an often-overlooked current in early medieval thought, to look at how the contours of the relationship between East and West moved across centuries, particularly in the period leading up to the First Crusade.

Get it from the UK and Europe or USA. 

Jamestown on YouTube

Danny Schmidt, an archaeologist at the Jamestown Rediscovery Project, sent over a host of YouTube videos of some recent discoveries. Really interesting stuff to take a look at, if you get the time. Also, be sure to check out Virtual Jamestown, run from Virginia Tech. Interesting stuff there too.

The "Obama Doctrine"

A very short post:

Not to point out the obvious, but the Obama doctrine (if there really is one) was laid out at the beginning of his presidency, during his Nobel acceptance speech.