[spectre] Cfp: Culture Machine Vol 25 (2026): University as Infrastructure

[Gary Hall]

/Culture Machine/ is happy to announce that *Vol 25 (2026)*, /University 
as Infrastructure/, will be guest-edited by Alexandra Anikina, Johannes 
Bruder, Megen de Bruin-Molé, Stephen Cornford, Kwame Phillips & Geoff 
Cox. You can now read the full *CfP* at Culture Machine’s website 
(https://culturemachine.net/vol25-cfp-university-as-infrastructure/). 
Some key excerpts below:

Initiated by the Critical Infrastructures & Image Politics research 
group at Winchester School of Art in collaboration with the Centre for 
the Study of the Networked Image, London South Bank University and 
Critical Media Lab, Basel Academy of Art and Design, this special issue 
aims to take stock of the challenges and possibilities for */University 
as Infrastructure/*.

One of the central references here is the second issue of Culture 
Machine, published 25 years ago, in which the editors examinedthe idea 
of the university as a culture machine 
<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/culturemachine.net/the-university-culture-machine/prospectus/__;!!K7l7YuZ3_aFnun0eduI!kJ7Nc6Z8x6vNLaMZPyJBfT25yI-poTxLhaY6T8bJMEmIn0t03vQOmi9PP4HcczVKeGc8NoBJb8iQ3c6EsUBgy-EBwwoJ88qEC4g$>(Gary 
Hall and Simon Wortham, eds. /The University Culture Machine/, 2000). At 
that time concerns were raised about the discourse of league tables, 
teaching quality assessments, learning outcomes, transferable skills, 
student-centred learning, problem-solving and working in teams, 
tendencies which have been accelerated and supplemented by new forms of 
managerialism. The university machine is now more fully automated and 
more obviously integrated into wider circuits of capital, the 
commodification of knowledge and extractive practices. To think about 
this infrastructurally helps to position the debate under contemporary 
conditions of ‘academic capitalism’ and its logistical operations that 
are some of the colonial legacies of institutionalising knowledge.

*The list of potential themes includes, but is not limited to:*/
/

/the university’s shift from culture machine to infrastructure machine
/

/the logistical operation of university corporatisation, marketisation 
and neoliberalisation of education
/

/the dependency on outsourced online and automated services
/

/recent developments in generative artificial intelligence and increased 
automation of knowledge systems
/

/extractivism and the influence of the industrial-military complex 
within university
/

/financial and governance models of universities
/

/the ambiguous leveraging of freedom of speech & freedom of science by 
universities
/

/universities’ responses to national regulations and political shifts
/

/examining the changing roles, qualities and value of the student and 
staff experience
/

/the tension between the lived experience and ‘well-being’, ‘mental 
health’, ‘EDI’ as defined by university structures
/

/affective/cognitive capital within university as infrastructure
/

/critical perspectives of the university that draw upon queer & 
transfeminist, postcolonial and critical /

/race studies
/

/grassroots open and adaptive alternatives
/

/student and staff infrastructural activism
/

/care in the development and maintenance of infrastructures
/

/historical reflection on education as a key site of social struggle
/

/university responses to student occupations
/

/submissions that are critical or subversive towards the format of 
academic papers (/please contact the editors to check if the format can 
be supported in the existing infrastructure of Culture Machine/)/

//

*Calendar
*

*Abstract**submissions (up to 300 words) are due on 15 September 2025 *

*Submit Drafts 15 December 2025*

*Peer Review 1 February – 31 May 2026*

*Revised Articles due on 1 August 2026*

*Publication in October 2026*

Again, you can read the full CfP, with selected references, here 
<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/culturemachine.net/vol25-cfp-university-as-infrastructure/__;!!K7l7YuZ3_aFnun0eduI!kJ7Nc6Z8x6vNLaMZPyJBfT25yI-poTxLhaY6T8bJMEmIn0t03vQOmi9PP4HcczVKeGc8NoBJb8iQ3c6EsUBgy-EBwwoJT8tRvc0$>: 
https://culturemachine.net/vol25-cfp-university-as-infrastructure/.

All best,

Culture Machine

-- 
Gary Hall
Professor of Media
Centre for Postdigital Cultures, Coventry University:
https://postdigitalcultures.org/about/

Director of Open Humanities Press:http://www.openhumanitiespress.org 
Websitehttp://www.garyhall.info
Blog:http://garyhall.squarespace.com/journal/


Latest:

Book: Masked Media: What It Means to Be Human in the Age of Artificial Creative Intelligence:http://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/masked-media/

Blog posts: 'The Commons vs Creative Commons II: On the Undercommons, Latent Commons and Uncommons':http://garyhall.squarespace.com/journal/2025/6/23/the-commons-vs-creative-commons-ii-on-the-undercommons-laten.html

'The Commons vs Creative Commons I: From Ostrom to Postcapitalism - and Back Again':http://garyhall.squarespace.com/journal/2025/6/14/the-commons-vs-creative-commons-i-from-ostrom-to-postcapital.html

Recommended: Robot Review of Books #15 Plurality: The Future of Collaborative Technology and Democracy by E. Glen Weyl, Audrey Tang and Community; and RRB #16 Pretentiousness: Why It Matters:https://www.robotreviewofbooks.org/























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