Dr. Paul R. Geisler, Assistant Professor in DESS, has just had his first book published by Peter Lang Publishing. Entitled "Higher Education at a Crossroads", Dr. Geisler's book is a post structural critique of the problematic trend(s) seen in today's higher education machine, and includes a discursive examination of the myriad factors involved.
The central argument of Dr. Geisler's book posits that today’s American university is largely and increasingly dysfunctional or, perhaps, "Dysacademic." This affective disorder can, in part be traced to the increasingly corporate & performative utilities of many contemporary institutions of higher education in America. Today’s commodified and "closed" university doesn’t transform the self as it once did, when the pedagogy of Bildung emphasized the development of character and culture by teaching "the rules of thought." Rather, the dysfunctional American university controls, constricts, and normalizes its subjects according to hyper-structured, accreditation-happy, economically driven disciplinary specialization, and a priori established standards and outcomes that work to define and transform the effective utility of higher education. After deconstructing the discourse of Dysacademia, Dr. Geisler outlines his vision for a "third curriculum", one wrought with complexity, self-organization, and critical, open spaces.
