Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology Mikaila Mariel Lemonik Arthur delivered a paper titled "Conflict, Controversy, and Collective Action in the Collegiate Curriculum" at the Workshop on Textbook Controversies at Cornell University on Feb. 8. This event brought together an interdisciplinary group of scholars researching contentious knowledge from across North America. It was sponsored by the Cornell University Institute for the Social Sciences Theme Project on Contentious Knowledge: Science, Social Science, and Social Movements.
Professor of Sociology Dennis Gilbert also participated in the workshop as a discussant. Arthur's paper considers the history of significant curricular changes in American higher education and outlines the various explanations for how disciplines emerge at the national and international level as well as what factors lead to curricular changes within individual institutions of higher education. It argues that the role of contention and social movements within knowledge production, disciplinary emergence, and curricular change needs more attention, and that such contention is a driving force behind at least some knowledge innovations.
Professor of Sociology Dennis Gilbert also participated in the workshop as a discussant. Arthur's paper considers the history of significant curricular changes in American higher education and outlines the various explanations for how disciplines emerge at the national and international level as well as what factors lead to curricular changes within individual institutions of higher education. It argues that the role of contention and social movements within knowledge production, disciplinary emergence, and curricular change needs more attention, and that such contention is a driving force behind at least some knowledge innovations.
