Questing Excellence in Academia

Unlike almost most other studies of neoliberal universities and academic capitalism this book ethnographically explores and interprets those transformations and their contradictions empirically in the everyday practices of students, faculty members, and administrators at two public universities: NTNU in Norway and UCLA in California.

Knut H. Sørensen is Professor Emeritus at NTNU, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture and Centre for Technology and Society. His academic work has spanned many areas of study, including climate and energy studies, feminist technoscience, and interdisciplinarity.
Sharon Traweek is Associate Professor of Gender Studies at UCLA and holds the Bernal Prize for her distinguished contributions to Science, Technology, and Society studies. She conducts research and teaches about knowledge making practices among anthropologists, astronomers, historians, and physicists in Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, and the US.