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Representing Higher Education: Unpacking Global University Rankings Media
April 4, 2016 @ 2:30 pm - 4:00 pm UTC-5
Sponsors: Office of International Studies in Education
Audiences: College of Education Faculty, Staff, and Students
Amid growing debates around global university rankings (GURs) in higher education (HE) policy, few have critically examined how GUR media (e.g. Times Higher Education (THE) and U.S. News and World Report (USN)) constructs and circulates the meaning and values of higher education in their online representations. Drawing on Stuart Hall’s concept of representation, this ongoing study critically examines publicly available and relevant media artifacts such as THE/USN’s websites, print and digital editions of their rankings reports. This talk will share some preliminary findings on how HE is constructed, fixed and normalized by the THE and USN ranking media.
Presenter: Riyad A. Shahjahan is a faculty member in higher, adult and lifelong education. His areas of expertise are in globalization and higher education, teaching and learning in higher education (focusing on anti-oppressive and embodied pedagogy), equity and social justice and anti-/post-colonial theory. He has been conducting both empirical and theoretical work, focusing on a) the role of international organizations (IOs) in globalizing higher education policy through empirical/theoretical analyses of IOs’ current policy initiatives (e.g., the OECF, World Bank, UNESCO, etc.) and b) rethinking the traditional objects of study/practice in higher education from global and non-western critical perspectives, particularly using anti-/post-colonial theoretical perspectives.