This seminar is aimed at exploring the changing structure, aims, and impact of the university, from early days through our present vexed moment to possible futures. The goal is to explore the foundational premises of why we have universities, where they come from and where they are heading. Each week we will explore a different facet of the university in its many forms, from the early, religious university through the growth of the research university—and all the ways it is has been transformed by war (hot and cold), corporatization, politics and social dislocation and unrest.