ABSTRACT
The image of the academy as armed fortress, or as an island of privilege surrounded by "the most desperate ratshit slums in the civilized world," is one that the author wants to keep in mind throughout this analysis, because she offers a context for the debates about the crisis in higher education. One would think that there would be more attention to the organic nature of the crisis in higher education at a time when recent doctoral students are finding it difficult—if not impossible—to obtain employment; when college graduates in both the humanities and the sciences must resort to temporary or part-time work; and when those who do not have a college education fare even worse. A situation of nascent crisis is an opportunity to discern the hidden pre-suppositions of a traditional system and the mechanisms capable of perpetuating it when the prerequisites of its functioning are no longer completely fulfilled.
