New Books - Temple University

Fall 2007 TEMPLE univErsiTy PrEss
The University against Itself
The NYU Strike and the Future of the
Academic Workplace
Edited by Monika Krause, Mary Nolan, Michael Palm,
and Andrew Ross
Lessons for what a graduate strike has for the
corporatization of higher education
During the last two decades, many U.S. universities have restructured
themselves to operate more like corporations. Nowhere has this process
been more dramatic than at New York University, which has often been
touted as an exemplar of the “corporate university.” Over the same
period, an academic labor movement has arisen in response to this
corporatization. Using the unprecedented 2005 strike by the graduate
student union at NYU as a springboard, The University Against Itself
provides a brief history of labor organizing on American campuses, analyzes the state of academic labor
today, and speculates about how the university workplace may evolve for employees.
All of the contributors were either participants in the NYU strike—graduate students, faculty, and
organizers—or are nationally recognized writers on academic labor. They are deeply troubled by the
ramifications of corporatizing universities. Here they spell out their concerns, offering lessons from one
historic strike as well as cautions about the future of all universities.
Contributors include: Stanley Aronowitz, Barbara Bowen, Andrew Cornell, Ashley Dawson,
Stephen Duncombe, Steve Fletcher, Greg Grandin, Adam Green, Kitty Krupat, Gordon Lafer,
Micki McGee, Sarah Nash, Cary Nelson, Matthew Osypowski, Ed Ott, Ellen Schrecker, Susan Valentine,
and the editors.
“A terrific book on an important topic, The University Against Itself offers a rich mixture of on-theground
activist immediacy and the deep insights of scholars in multiple disciplines who have studied
these developments for years. The authors place what looks like a small story into a national, even
global context of aggressive neoliberal capitalism, showing the connections between NYU’s story
and the largest of disturbing trends.”—Dana Frank, University of California, Santa Cruz
labor studies/Education/sociology
FEBRUARY
280 pp. 6 x 9”
3 tables, 2 illustrations
Paper 1-59213-354-1 $25.95 £16.99
EAN 978-1-59213-741-1
Cloth 1-59213-740-7 $74.50 £48.00
EAN 978-1-59213-740-4
8
MoniKa KRausE
is a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at New York University.
MaRY nolan
is Professor of History at New York University.
MiChaEl PalM
is completing his Ph.D. in the American studies program at NYU.
anDREW Ross
is Professor of American studies in the Department of Social and Cultural
Analysis, New York University, and author of Fast Boat To China, Low Pay,
High Profile, and No-Collar: The Humane Workplace and Its Hidden Costs
(Temple).
.800.62 .2736