A lightly edited version of remarks made at the 2024 Heterodox Academy Conference in Chicago for the panel "What do universities owe the liberal project?"
The idea of Universities as mapmakers reminds me of the role of maps in my discipline (economics). We tell our students that while maps are representations of reality, they are flawed by definition because they are incomplete representations of reality. So completeness matters. Alongside this, though, lies accuracy (as a precursor to completeness). So I wonder if the role of the University is to make more accurate maps rather than or in addition to making more complete maps. Sometimes increasing complexity increases accuracy. But increasing complexity can also reduce necessary clarity.
Great points, Lynn! And I totally agree. I focus a lot on tradeoffs in other posts (and in the broader project) and map-making is a great example. You need different maps for different kinds of things and a more complete map can sometimes obscure what you're really trying to look at. This is, I think, why disciplinary lenses are still so important - disciplines train us to think about the maps in different ways. So we gets lots of different maps of the same landscape and that's actually a good thing. Those will overlap in some ways and not in others but the goal is to have a range of accurate maps available for people trying to navigate different parts of the landscape to achieve different ends (if that makes sense).
Lauren, I finally had time to read this thoroughly and it is wonderful. Sorry I missed your in-person delivery!
Excellent presentation. Thanks for sharing this, Lauren.
The idea of Universities as mapmakers reminds me of the role of maps in my discipline (economics). We tell our students that while maps are representations of reality, they are flawed by definition because they are incomplete representations of reality. So completeness matters. Alongside this, though, lies accuracy (as a precursor to completeness). So I wonder if the role of the University is to make more accurate maps rather than or in addition to making more complete maps. Sometimes increasing complexity increases accuracy. But increasing complexity can also reduce necessary clarity.
Looking forward to reading more posts!
Great points, Lynn! And I totally agree. I focus a lot on tradeoffs in other posts (and in the broader project) and map-making is a great example. You need different maps for different kinds of things and a more complete map can sometimes obscure what you're really trying to look at. This is, I think, why disciplinary lenses are still so important - disciplines train us to think about the maps in different ways. So we gets lots of different maps of the same landscape and that's actually a good thing. Those will overlap in some ways and not in others but the goal is to have a range of accurate maps available for people trying to navigate different parts of the landscape to achieve different ends (if that makes sense).