Butler, Foucault, Gender, and the University

Butler's discussion of subject representation and creation in the first two pages of "Gender Trouble" called upon Foucault for support to make the claim that "juridical systems of power produce the subjects they subsequently come to represent" (2).  This fired a series of synapses in my head, connecting the problems of gender representation with problems of the University.  It so happens that I have on my door another quote from Foucault (apparently in conversation/ debate with Noam Chomsky) which reads:

    "One knows that the university and in a general way, all teaching systems, which appear simply to disseminate knowledge, are made to maintain a certain social class in power; and to exclude the instruments of power of another class.  Thus the real political task in a society such as ours is to criticize the workings of institutions, which appear to be both neutral and independent; to criticize and attack them in such a manner that the political violence which has always exercised itself obscurely through them will be unmasked, so that one can fight against them."

Universities are not a magical place excluded from the influence of power and devoted purely to true and beautiful knowledge.  In fact, corporate interests are very influential on campuses across the country.  Consider the expansion planned for the Kelley School of Business.  Funds are actively being sought from private donors, and the majority of their $60 million goal has already been attained.  Students in the Kelley School are not taught to question neoliberalism, they are merely taught its workings.  In this way representations of healthy and sustainable economic models are determined by the university, which is hugely swayed by corporate interests.  Even our economics department doesn't teach political economics which might serve to challenge neoliberalism.

Universities are meant to serve the purpose of higher learning, which deals with representation at the most fundamental level.  Instructors present materials to their classes day in and day out, but rarely do original materials enter the classroom.  Thus, education deals in representation.  However, like gender, that which is represented must first be produced by the power that also does the representing.