Flipping the Covenant: Debt, Labor, Public Education

FLIPPING THE COVENANT
Debt, Labor, and Higher Education

What’s the situation with debt and higher education? It’s common to talk about student debt, but what about the debts that many colleges and universities owe to big banks? 


About this episode
Our January 2021 podcast features Eleni Schirmer, a scholar of labor, social movements, and the political economy of education.  We talk about the debt crisis in higher education as it affects not only students but institutions; the history of teacher unions; how to bring democratic practices from the street and the organizing committee to everyday classroom pedagogy.


About our guest
A PhD candidate in the Department of Education Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin – Madison and currently a research associate at the Penn State Center for Global Workers’ Rights, Eleni Schirmer has won numerous awards for her teaching and research. She’s written for the Boston Review, The New Yorker, Dissent, and the Nation — the latter of which published her game-changing article on university debt. She organizes around all of these issues, including a stint as the co-president of the Teaching Assistants’ Association, which is the nation’s largest graduate employee union.

Credits!

Outro music by Akrasis — “And We Out” from the album Children Singing in Hell. Check out their stuff at https://akrasis.bandcamp.com/

Max Bowen (raps) and Mark McKee (beats)

css.php