Graduate Education: Then, Now, Next Session 3

This session is a makeup session, and will focus on the following readings:

Gilman’s Inaugural Address for Johns Hopkins University

What competing intellectual, practical, economic, and social aims does Gilman identify in his vision of the first American university, and how do these tensions shape its purpose?

What specific academic aims define the university, and in what ways do they align with or diverge from established global precedents of the time?

How does Gilman imagine the university as an institutional project—who builds it, who studies there, and who defines its intellectual direction—and what wider educational and social infrastructures (such as robust secondary schools, or the four “adjuncts” pg.33) does he argue are necessary to sustain it?

Flexner’s The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge 

Flexner appears to be a potentially exaggerated proponent of the academic freedom described in Gilman’s address. How should we evaluate his claim that the most important discoveries arise from unrestricted curiosity, and that educational institutions should prioritize this curiosity over practical knowledge (p. 549)? To what extent is this ideal reflected in Princeton University and in our own research priorities?

Series Overview:
Graduate Education: Then, Now, Next focuses on the historical realities, the present pressing issues, and the future of graduate education in North America and globally. We will augment readings and discussion with a rotation of visiting speakers who will address graduate education’s past and present, as well as forward-looking and tactically-oriented discussions of how graduate students can best prepare for the futures in front of them.