We have witnessed an unprecedented juncture of historical crisis, marked by the systematic erosion of democratic norms, the intensification of mass militarization, depoliticization of the university, and the ongoing execution of state-sanctioned violence across the Global South. Across multiple national and global contexts, international legal frameworks and human rights institutions are openly ignored, defunded, and dismantled. To comprehend the depth and breadth of this moment, we must turn to Zygmunt Bauman’s conceptualization of liquid modernity—a condition characterized by the dissolution of durable social bonds, the privatization of systemic failures, and a pervasive precarity that strips individuals of collective agency. In this fluid, volatile landscape, global financial capital moves across borders with frictionless ease, while human bodies fleeing imperial violence, economic devastation, and ecological collapse are met with hyper-militarized borders, carceral regimes, and existential erasure. This convergence of global crises demands a rigorous re-examination of cultural production and institutional responsibility. Specifically, we must interrogate how world literature registers and resists the twin pressures of neoliberal rationalization and neofascist authoritarianism, while asserting a radical vision for the university grounded in critical pedagogy.

To confront this crisis, higher education must embrace the theoretical and activist framework of critical pedagogy articulated by Henry Giroux. Giroux argues that education is inherently political and represents a central site for the struggle over agency, democracy, and social justice. Against the "pedagogy of privatization" enforced by neoliberal corporate governance, critical pedagogy insists that the university must function as a vibrant democratic public sphere. Education cannot be reduced to the passive accumulation of marketable skills or the uncritical transmission of dominant ideologies; rather, it must equip students with the analytical tools necessary to interrogate power dynamics, unmask systemic injustices, and hold dominant institutions accountable.

Potential topics:

- Critical Pedagogy 

-world literature and neoliberalism

-The role of the intellectual 

-Teaching Against the grain

-Can students Speak? 

-Neoliberalism and sociopolitical resistance 

-The role of the University in the global South