John Higgins is Arderne Chair of Literature at the University of Cape Town and a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa.

Must universities starve themselves to death in order to stand up for their principles? Noted cultural critic John Higgins has written a book about much more than what Americans call ‘academic freedom.' Taking up a perspective that is defiantly located 'offshore,' Higgins shows in brilliant and intriguing detail how the humanities in post-apartheid South Africa have suffered both from American-style corporate instrumentalism and from what he calls 'applied nationalism' and how much democracy stands to lose thereby. This is a world-scale contribution to the university’s never more than partially realized challenge of figuring out what cultural literacy should be and how it can be defended.

John Higgins is Arderne Chair of Literature at the University of Cape Town and a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa.

Must universities starve themselves to death in order to stand up for their principles? Noted cultural critic John Higgins has written a book about much more than what Americans call ‘academic freedom.' Taking up a perspective that is defiantly located 'offshore,' Higgins shows in brilliant and intriguing detail how the humanities in post-apartheid South Africa have suffered both from American-style corporate instrumentalism and from what he calls 'applied nationalism' and how much democracy stands to lose thereby. This is a world-scale contribution to the university’s never more than partially realized challenge of figuring out what cultural literacy should be and how it can be defended.

John Higgins is Arderne Chair of Literature at the University of Cape Town and a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa.

Must universities starve themselves to death in order to stand up for their principles? Noted cultural critic John Higgins has written a book about much more than what Americans call ‘academic freedom.' Taking up a perspective that is defiantly located 'offshore,' Higgins shows in brilliant and intriguing detail how the humanities in post-apartheid South Africa have suffered both from American-style corporate instrumentalism and from what he calls 'applied nationalism' and how much democracy stands to lose thereby. This is a world-scale contribution to the university’s never more than partially realized challenge of figuring out what cultural literacy should be and how it can be defended.