The University: A History in Stone, Silk, and Blood
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21:37
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Host Alex Usher speaks with William Whyte, professor of social and architectural history at Oxford and author of The University: A History in Stone, Silk, and Blood, about the material history of the university.
Rather than tracing the institution chronologically, Whyte examines universities through the materials that have shaped them, from the stone buildings that anchored medieval universities to the concrete campuses of the postwar era and the silicon of today’s digital age. They discuss why universities became landowners, how physical spaces shaped institutional power and identity, and the complex relationship between universities, their communities, and the state.
The conversation also considers what the university’s material history can tell us about its future: as technology makes online education increasingly possible, do universities still need campuses and face-to-face communities?
S5E2
