Women on the Role of Public Higher Education : Personal Reflections From CUNY’s Graduate Center

This edited collection presents a compilation of personal essays on the role of public higher education in the lives of fourteen social scientists who are graduates of the Graduate Center, the doctoral granting institution at the City University of New York, the nation's largest public urban university. Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Chapter 1 Introduction -- Part I Learning to Be Critical -- Chapter 2 The Children of the Whole People Can Be Educated -- Chapter 3 Taking Refuge in the Public University: From Harvard to CUNY -- Chapter 4 The Personal Is Global, the Political Is Communal, the Rest Is Teaching and Mentoring -- Chapter 5 Reflections on My Public Education -- Chapter 6 Network Analysis: Personal Connections within and across Academies in NYC -- Part II Building Caring Communities -- Chapter 7 The Accidental Scholar: Overcoming the Odds and Succeeding through CUNY -- Chapter 8 Starting Over, Starting Again: Reflections on the Foreign Student in Public Higher Education -- Chapter 9 Creating Caring Communities at the Graduate Center -- Chapter 10 Learning to Ask Life's Big Questions -- Chapter 11 My Not-At-All-Private Metamorphosis: On the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and Public School Sp -- Part III Becoming and Staying Public -- Chapter 12 Striving to Stay Public -- Chapter 13 Becoming Public -- Chapter 14 An Open University: Taking the Experimental Path -- Chapter 15 An International Student's Reflections on the CUNY Years: Far Away, So Close -- Bibliography -- Contributors -- Index Front Matter....Pages i-xiii Introduction....Pages 1-25 Front Matter....Pages 27-27 The Children of the Whole People Can Be Educated....Pages 29-44 Taking Refuge in the Public University: From Harvard to CUNY....Pages 45-56 The Personal Is Global, the Political Is Communal, the Rest Is Teaching and Mentoring....Pages 57-71 Reflections on My Public Education....Pages 73-88 Network Analysis: Personal Connections within and across Academies in NYC....Pages 89-98 Front Matter....Pages 99-99 The Accidental Scholar: Overcoming the Odds and Succeeding through CUNY....Pages 101-111 Starting Over, Starting Again: Reflections on the Foreign Student in Public Higher Education....Pages 113-124 Creating Caring Communities at the Graduate Center....Pages 125-137 Learning to Ask Life’s Big Questions....Pages 139-153 My Not-At-All-Private Metamorphosis: On the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and Public School Spaces....Pages 155-163 Front Matter....Pages 165-165 Striving to Stay Public....Pages 167-182 Becoming Public....Pages 183-197 An Open University: Taking the Experimental Path....Pages 199-214 An International Student’s Reflections on the CUNY Years: Far Away, So Close....Pages 215-229 Back Matter....Pages 231-251 Women on the Role of Public Higher Education presents fourteen auto-ethnographic essays by women who have received doctoral degrees in the social sciences from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Their powerful narratives, critical perspectives on the academy, commitment to feminist pedagogy, and development of new forms of research methods offer a nuanced portrayal of the importance of public higher education in people's lives, and for society as a whole. Their personal reflections on the impact public higher education has had in developing a critical political awareness, building a commitment to teaching, and in aiding self-discovery should be seen as evidence for what can happen when higher education is made public