Knowledge Politics

This course will introduce you to the politics of knowledge through the analytical lenses of inter-national relations and public policy. Higher education is often considered the next frontier in the knowledge economy race to attract, train, and retain talent. At the same time, it is central to the cultivation of national identity, sensitivity, and future. In this course, we take as a point of depar-ture that higher education straddles several key societal pillars that have difficult-to-reconcile objectives: culture (higher education as inculcating students with a sense of civic responsibility), market (higher education as training the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators; higher education as a form of exportable services), and politics (knowledge collaboration and exchange as a form of diplomacy; knowledge generated from the higher education sector as policy solutions for meeting the world's Grand Challenges). By taking this course, you will learn that the ways in which higher education is configured and reconfigured thus constitutes a win-dow into the overall social, economic, and political stability of a state and region, as well as their likely future trajectories.