Schoolishness and Alienation - A Conversation with Prof. Susan D. Blum

It's a strange thing that the concept of school has become almost
universal over the last few hundred years. If you ask anyone
almost anywhere in the world, they will be able to describe
something that looks roughly like a shared concept of school. But
maybe it didn't have to be this way. Maybe it could have been
different. This week the amazing professor of anthropology Susan
Blum Joins me to talk about 'schoolishness' which is her latest
fantastic book, based on decades of research into the cultural
development of the dominant ideas around formal institutional
education.


Susan D. Blum is a cultural, linguistic, and psychological
anthropologist specializing in the study of China and the United
States. She received her PhD in Anthropology from the University
of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and also has two MAs—in Anthropology and
in Chinese Language and Literature (both from Michigan)--and a BA
in Human Language from Stanford University.


Professor Blum is the author and editor of 10 books and dozens of
articles, as well as public-facing writing. Her latest
book, Schoolishness: Alienated Education and the Quest for
Authentic, Joyful Learning (Cornell, 2024), is the third in
a trilogy about higher education. The other two books are "I
Love Learning; I Hate School": An Anthropology of
College (Cornell, 2016) and My Word! Plagiarism and
College Culture (Cornell, 2009). She also edited a widely
read book calling into question the centrality and necessity of
grading, Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning
(and What to Do Instead) (West Virginia, 2020).


She has taught at Oklahoma State University, The University of
Colorado Denver, The University of Denver, The University of
Pennsylvania, and The University of Notre Dame, where she is a
Professor in the Department of Anthropology. At Notre Dame, she
has served as Director of the Center for Asian Studies and Chair
of the Department of Anthropology. She is a Fellow of the Helen
Kellogg Institute for International Studies, a Fellow in the
Institute for Educational Initiatives, a Fellow of the Liu
Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, a Fellow of the Eck
Institute for Global Health, and a Fellow of the Shaw Center for
Children and Families.


She received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship
for her book, Lies That Bind: Chinese Truth, Other Truths (2007),
and has received the Delta Kappa Gamma Educator's Award, 2010,
for her book My Word! Plagiarism and College
Culture (2009), which was translated into Chinese in 2011.
Blum has also received an Excellence in Teaching award from The
University of Colorado Denver (2000) and the Reverend Edmund P.
Joyce, CSC, Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching from
The University of Notre Dame (2010).


Social Links


LinkedIn: @susan-blum -
https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-blum-aba01212/


Instagram: @susandblum - https://www.instagram.com/susandblum/


Threads: @susandblum - https://www.threads.net/@susandblum