French Connection Marks Philosophy Relaunch At Kingston University.

The Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy (CRMEP) celebrated its relaunch at Kingston University by announcing its new partnership with the Department of Philosophy at Paris 8. . . .

Read the rest here: http://www.kingstonpeople.co.uk/groups/kingstonuniversity/French-Connection-Marks-Philosophy-Relaunch/story-10063338-detail/story.html.

An End to the Crisis at Middlesex?

The campaign to save our philosophy programmes has just won a partial but significant victory: Kingston University in south-west London announced today that it will re-establish our Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy (CRMEP) at Kingston, by employing the four senior staff in Philosophy at Middlesex (Eric Alliez, Peter Hallward, Peter Osborne and Stella Sandford). Our MA and PhD programmes (full-time and part-time) will be re-launched at Kingston this September, and all current post-graduate students will be invited to move along with the staff. . . . [I was wondering when a smart university would take advantage of this opportunity. . . .] Read the rest of the announcement here: http://savemdxphil.com/.

Update on Middlesex University Philosophy Crisis.

See Vice Chancellor Michael Driscoll's update on philosophy provision here: http://savemdxphil.com/2010/06/02/vice-chancellor-michael-driscoll-update-on-philosophy-provision-28-may/. See Stella Sandford's response on behalf of the philosophy programmes here: http://savemdxphil.com/2010/06/02/stella-sandford-response-to-vice-chancellor-driscolls-update-1-june/.

Middlesex University's Response to the Controversy over the Closure of its Philosophy Programmes.

Read it here: http://www.mdx.ac.uk/Assets/Philosophy_statement_journ.pdf.

Morrison, Richard. "Philosophy Hasn't Been this Newsworthy since Wittgenstein Threatened Popper." TIMES May 21, 2010.

It's been drawn to my attention that my updates on the crisis in Philosophy at Middlesex University have not, for some unknown reason, been picked up by Feedburner and included in the regular email updates. For the background (including the initial decision to close the programmes and, more recently, the suspension of three faculty members), see my updates at this post here: http://philosophysother.blogspot.com/2010/04/closure-of-philosophy-programmes.html. Not since the opening of Brent Cross Shopping Centre has our neck of North London known such heady intellectual excitement. Middlesex University, our local seat of learning, is in disarray. Students occupied one building for 12 days; the sit-in was ended only when the authorities served a High Court injunction. More than 14,000 people have signed a protest petition and 60 top international academics, including Noam Chomsky, have written angry letters. Tariq Ali has made a speech. There’s talk of barricades being manned, ramparts being stormed and Whitehall being invaded. The stroppy spirit of 1968 is in the air. And all because Middlesex University, which seems to sprout a brash new glass building every month, has announced that it is closing its philosophy department. The reaction has been heartwarming. So much for those who lament (or rejoice) that Britain is dumbing down. Philosophy hasn’t been this newsworthy (or energetic) since Ludwig Wittgenstein threatened Karl Popper with a red-hot poker. What explains the furore? Well, unlikely though it seems, Middlesex’s philosophy department has become the lightning-rod for the pent-up fear and loathing crackling round universities. For many academics, what has happened here seems a plausible portent of what’s in store for arts and humanities faculties throughout Britain. After all, Middlesex’s philosophers weren’t failing. On the contrary: they were ranked 13th out of 41 philosophy departments — above such fine universities as York and Durham. Indeed, they had a higher research score than any other department at Middlesex, thus earning hundreds of thousands of pounds in grants. Why, then, have they got the chop? . . . Get the answer here: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/article7132170.ece.

Closure of Philosophy Programmes, University of Middlesex.

Even More Updates: Some Middlesex University Philosophy students, along with Philosophy professors Peter Osborne and Peter Hallward, were suspended from the University this afternoon. Hallward and Osborne were issued with letters announcing their suspension from the University with immediate effect, pending investigation into their involvement in the recent campus occupations. The suspension notice blocks them from entering University premises or contacting in any way University students and employees without the permission of Dean Ed Esche (e.esche@mdx.ac.uk) or a member of the University’s Executive. (Read more here: http://savemdxphil.com/2010/05/21/philosophy-students-and-staff-suspended/) More Updates (May 17, 2010): John Protevi, "Why Middlesex Matters": The past three weeks have seen an international outcry at the decision by the administration of Middlesex University in London to close its small but very highly regarded philosophy program. Why were so many American academics, many of them besieged by budget crises at their own universities, so upset at this decision made so far away? Why did Middlesex matter to those thousands who so quickly became involved, and why should it matter to all American academics, even those who are only just now hearing of it? First, it matters because the administration’s decision wasn’t just meekly accepted. The resistance to it by faculty and students at Middlesex is remarkable, and their courage and organizing skill serve as an inspiring model to academics here suffering from years of the "death by a thousand cuts" of reduced hiring and operating budgets, larger classes, increased teaching loads, and more use of precarious adjunct labor – all delivered with top-down administrative arrogance more or less fig-leafed with talk of "shared governance." . . . (http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2010/05/17/protevi) Jeremy Gilbert, "The Loss of Philosophy": About a month ago I was chatting to a friend, and happened to mention the vague rumours I’d heard that Middlesex University, North London, was on the point of closing its Philosophy programmes. Even as the words came out of my mouth, I found myself unable to believe them. I said, ‘I must have got that wrong’, the thought was not only shocking but simply absurd. Why would any university close a research centre and teaching programme, which was widely known to be popular and profitable, with a world-class reputation well beyond the normal confines of its own discipline? Several weeks later, this is what the academic community - and above all the students and staff of Middlesex Philosophy - are still asking themselves. The shock has been widespread and deeply felt. A wave of threatened and actual redundancies, and a responding wave of frequently-successful protests against them, has shaken British universities over the past year, as managements prepared for the series of deep funding cuts that began in April and are expected to continue for several years to come. As commentators have pointed out (see the Guardian article here), philosophy is often a vulnerable discipline, under these circumstances, for a range of political reasons: most notably its apparent lack of fit with the government’s drive to push more students into ‘degree’ programmes tailored to the demands of commerce. Middlesex is an exceptional case, however. Not only is it one of very few places in the UK where students can follow programmes in ‘continental’ philosophy (which is what Anglo-American philosophers call what everyone else in the world calls ‘philosophy’) and in particular its radical leftist and feminist variants, but it has been for many years a beacon of internationally-renowned research, one of relatively few such research centres to have survived and prospered in the ‘new universities’. While some parts of government in recent years have been trying to reinstall the rigid hierarchy between research-focussed elite universities and their lesser counterparts that was disrupted in the 1990s [see Boonery and Open Democracy), centres like Middlesex’s Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy have shown that non-elite institutions can become homes of dynamic world-leading innovation in subjects that don’t require massive levels of infrastructural investment. . . . (http://www.redpepper.org.uk/The-loss-of-philosophy) More Updates (May 8, 2010): More links added below. Update (May 6, 2010): I have added to the links below. Original Post (April 30, 2010): Late on Monday 26 April 2010, the Dean of the School of Arts and Education at Middlesex University, announced the closure of all its Philosophy programmes, including the largest MA programme in Philosophy in the UK. Philosophy is the highest research-ranked subject in the University, and Middlesex is the highest rated of all the post-92 institutions in the subject. Philosophy at Middlesex is one of only a handful of programmes left in the UK that provides both research-driven and inclusive post-graduate teaching and supervision aimed at a wide range of students, specialist and non-specialist. It is the main centre in the UK for the study of European or 'continental' philosophy. The Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy is the main centre for 'continental' philosophy in the UK, with an established international reputation, frequent visiting speakers from abroad and increasing numbers of postgraduate students. There are currently 63 postgraduate students in the Centre: 48 MA students and 15 PhD students. 5 PhDs were awarded in 2009. These are remarkable numbers, especially for a small group of six staff. The Middlesex Philosophy submission to RAE2001 was graded 5, and the 2008 submission was awarded a GPA of 2.80, ranking it joint 13th out of 41 institutions entered in Philosophy - above both its main competitors, Warwick and Sussex. It has hosted 2 Leverhulme Fellowships in the last 6 years, and recently completed a £245,000 AHRC-funded research project, 'Concept and Form: The Cahiers pour l'analyse and Contemporary French Thought' (which included production of a major web research resource). It recently submitted an application for a 2-year AHRC Project Grant on Transdisciplinarity, and held an international event on Transdisciplinarity in French Thought at the French Institute). To express support and to help with the campaign against the closure, email Professor Peter Osborne at peter@peterosborne.f2s.com making reference to Middlesex philosophy in the subject line. Persons to write to:

• Vice-Chancellor of the University, Michael Driscoll, m.driscoll@mdx.ac.uk;
• Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Enterprise, Waqar Ahmad, w.ahmad@mdx.ac.uk;
• Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic, Margaret House, m.house@mdx.ac.uk;
• Dean of the School of Arts & Education, Ed Esche, e.esche@mdx.ac.uk.

Further information is available here:

• http://thethirdestate.net/2010/04/middlesex-university-shamefully-cuts-philosophy-department/
• http://infinitethought.cinestatic.com/
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/apr/29/philosophy-minorities-middleqsex-university-logic
• http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/cultural-capital/2010/04/philosophy-university
• http://savemdxphil.com/
• http://twitter.com/saveMDXphil
• http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=119102561449990
• http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=411482&c=2
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/may/07/philosophy-cuts-closures-middlesex-university

Sign the petition here: http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-middlesex-philosophy.html.