Let us Build a City and a Tower”: Figures of the University in Gregor Reisch’s (1503) Margarita Philosophica’

This book chapter outlines a critical reading of public domain images from from Gregor Reisch’s Renaissance encyclopedia, the Margarita Philosophica (1503). This reading is forwarded as an allegory of the neoliberal economisation (Brown 2015) of the contemporary university. Indeed, the author argues that Reisch's images uncannily prefigure the contemporary higher education conjuncture. As well as drawing on a range of sources from critical university studies (De Sousa Santos 2018; Hall 2018; Brown 2015; McGettigan 2013; Edu-Facory Collective 2011; Reading 1996), this chapter doubles as an critical introduction to university pedagogy from the middle ages.