The Interlude in Academe: Reclaiming Time and Space for Intellectual Life

The book explores the idea that interludes offer opportunities to examine academic work and experiment with alternative modes and models of intellectual life, using the COVID-19 pandemic as an example. It argues that the "business" of the academic enterprise is often about keeping the institutional machinery running at all costs, rather than learning, ideas, or the life of the mind. Interludes provide spaces for interrogating entrenched policies and practices and for the pursuit of learning and idea play both within and beyond institutions.

Format: Hardback
Length: 184 pages
Publication date: 15 February 2023
Publisher: Lexington Books

This book delves into the notion that interludes, or disruptions to our established patterns, rituals, and routines, present individuals and institutions with a unique opportunity to scrutinize the underlying assumptions that shape academic work and experiment with alternative modes and models of intellectual life. Drawing upon the COVID-19 pandemic as a prominent example of an externally imposed interlude on a large scale, the book contends that the urge of most colleges and universities to "return to business as usual" reveals that the primary focus of the academic enterprise is not necessarily centered around learning, ideas, or the cultivation of the mind. Rather, it primarily revolves around the preservation of the institutional machinery at all costs, often driven by state and market forces. Conversely, interludes of any magnitude or duration, ranging from global pandemics with far-reaching consequences to brief elective personal retreats, provide valuable moments for questioning our established policies and practices while simultaneously serving as fertile grounds for learning and idea exploration both within and beyond institutional settings.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781666900439