Introducing the “Higher Education Reading Group” — a shared space for thought, resistance, and symbolic repair
At a surface level, this is a space for collective reading and discussion around key texts in the philosophy of education, the university, and the public good. We’re also open to contemporary works and author draft papers.
Think of this like a Zoom-era Inklings — not for fantasy novels, but for those trying to imagine the future of the university with the same depth, seriousness, and moral imagination … whilst also having fun and memeing things into existence!
It is our recurring monthly ritual, a space to re-activate symbolic integrity in an age of institutional simulation.
This is what we understand, what it means to walk the talk of a living and embodying a university. This is not to mourn the ashes of its ruins. But to carry the fire of its intellectual and symbolic inheritance, which made the institution possible in the first place, and worth inhabiting.
In other words, it is an open space for thinking aloud, for exploring ideas that do not yet have institutional permission, and for reinventing what it means to be a universitas, not just in writing, but in form and fellowship. With the Latin implication of the two primary meanings: the whole, or totality and a corporation or society.
In that spirit: The “whole” refers to how we approach ideas: not as data points, but as parts of living structures, and how they connect to the eternal themes in classic texts. The “cooperation” refers to the tone: informal, relaxed, non-judgmental, collaborative. A space where we are free to think, together.
This group does not idealize the Western university. But it does insist on acknowledging its origins, not to entrench them, but to understand how we got here, and how we might respond with more depth, integrity, and care going forward.
Each reading below was chosen not just for its intellectual value, but for its recursive potential: to help us think through how our work shapes our institutions, and how we might resist becoming hollowed versions of ourselves.
If you have reading suggestions, please email them to me, or simply share them during a session.
Structure of the reading group meetings:
We meet once a month, focused on one core text.
Rather than a rigid format, we typically depart from three generative questions:
- What does this text say about the university in general?
- What are its implications for universities today?
- What is the implication for my own intellectual work?
After each session:
- A short one-page summary will be written and archived on our website.
- These will serve as living records, useful for those who missed a session, want to revisit past insights, or are just joining.
- Over time, this becomes a repository of reflective practice, a trace of our shared ritual of sense-making.
Today, it’s our turn.
24th of September, 13:00 – 14:00 CET. 07:00 – 08:00 EDT, 21:00 – 22:00 AEST – Derrida, The Future of the Profession or the University Without Condition
22nd of October, 13:00 – 14:00 CET. 07:00 – 08:00 EDT, 21:00 – 22:00 AEST – Nussbaum, Not for Profit (Chapter 1: “The Silent Crisis”)
19th of November, 13:00 – 14:00 CET. 07:00 – 08:00 EDT, 21:00 – 22:00 AEST – Readings, The University in Ruins (Chapter 1: “The University and the Idea of Culture”)
16th of December, 13:00 – 14:00 CET. 07:00 – 08:00 EDT, 21:00 – 22:00 AEST – [reading yet to be decided]
TO JOIN: email Rene at rene.brauer@uef.fi . We’ll send calendar invites, Zoom links, and access to the reading archive here: https://www.bacchusinstituteof.science/reading-group
Looking forward to seeing many of you there — not just as readers,
but as keepers of coherence.
Warmly,
Rene Brauer
P.S. This ritualistic recurrence has already generated publications such as:
Brauer et al. “The Impact of Impact: An Invitation to Philosophise.” Minerva (2025): 1–28.