In Praise of the Ivory Tower: A Defence of Free Inquiry in Our Universities

Universities are sometimes disparagingly referred to as ivory towers, cut off from the practicalities of everyday life. This image is increasingly unrealistic: universities are being sucked into an everyday “neo-liberal” world that is hostile to the values of a liberal education that they are supposed to promote. This trend, argues John Krige, must be reversed, beginning with students and teachers critically defending a space accessible to all where critical inquiry and academic freedom are vigorously protected. John Krige’s latest book, completed while he was Liu Institute Visiting Fellow at Green College in 2014-15, is Sharing Knowledge, Shaping Europe: US Technological Collaboration and Non-Proliferation (MIT Press, 2016).