Throughout 2021, aware of – and experiencing – widespread anxiety and despair from our respective locations in higher education, we dared to imagine a global, collective, collaborative work that would point towards better futures, and thus inspire hope. In December 2021 we extended a global invitation to contribute chapter proposals for this work: ‘Higher Education for Good: Teaching and Learning Futures’ (#HE4Good).
This week we collected the responses to this call – an astonishing 92 proposals – representing work from 176 scholars from 26 countries. This roaring response represents so much to us… hope, certainly, but also trust. We hold this trust carefully and humbly. This week and next, we are working together to read, re-read and discuss the proposals, and will then identify a number of these to form the #HE4Good collection.
We have already expanded our vision. We know at this early stage that there will be many more proposals that cannot be included than can be included in this one collection. We conceive of #HE4Good as part of a wider network of efforts ––small and large, individual and collective, local and global–– to re-imagine, re-cast and renew higher education in a time of crisis. The response to this project shows that we who imagine higher education that is just, emancipatory, ‘good’ – are many and diverse, and prepared to share ideas through scholarly writing, speculative fiction, graphic form, dialogue, poetry, imagery, audio and more.
To all who contributed proposals to #HE4Good, we extend our warmest thanks. We are reading your work with care and will reply by 25 February. Whether your contribution will be included in this particular collection or not, we intend to continue to communicate, to collaborate, to share ideas and strategies.
To all who are interested in Higher Education for Good, you can keep an eye on the progress of this project via the #HE4Good hashtag and our blogs.
With warm thanks, and renewed hope,
Catherine and Laura
Catherine Cronin, @catherinecronin, http://catherinecronin.net
Laura Czerniewicz, @czernie, https://czernie.weebly.com/