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Join us for PUB 611 - Making Knowledge Public: How Research Makes Its Way Into Society. Designed to spark conversations and engage students from across the university, the course explores the changing role of research, knowledge-making, and truth in the public sphere.

Making Knowledge Public is a course about how knowledge produced at universities makes its way into society, the public value of this knowledge, and the diminishing attention given to this public mission. The course asks questions such as: how does research shape public policy? how is the public involved in science? and, how is research taken up by the public? The course is premised on the belief that, in today’s climate, it is more important than ever for universities, researchers, and scholars to assert themselves in the public sphere in more purposeful ways. At the same time, the course offers a very critical examination of how universities function, including the little value that is actually placed on making knowledge public. We will very purposely pull back the curtain on how universities function by exploring academic career incentives, the economies of prestige that govern them, and the role of education—including yours—plays in the institution.

This 4-credit course is being offered entirely online in an asynchronous format, with assignments due at scheduled points throughout the term. The course is open to both undergraduate and graduate students from SFU, as well as to non-credit students from anywhere in the world (registered through SFU’s LifeLong Learning). 

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