Research Talk with Rudy Hirschheim - Optimal Placement of the Deck Chairs on the Titanic: A Personal Reflection on the State of the Academy

Room: 52-7024 (7th floor)

Institut für Wirtschaftsinformatik (IWI)
Universität St.Gallen (HSG)
Müller-Friedberg-Strasse 8
CH-9000 St.Gallen

Online access: https://unisg.zoom.us/j/68509624113?pwd=nZla81VNHnE5j44HakTT7D6TjijHUF.1 
Meeting-ID: 685 0962 4113 
Kenncode: 921887

This talk reflects Rudys thinking about what is happening to Academia and is based on his 50 years of being an academic. In those 50 years, where he have had academic appointments in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, as well as visiting appointments in Germany, France, Finland, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, South Africa, Hong Kong, among others, there has never been such dramatic changes in the academy as currently appearing.  These dramatic changes include significant government involvement in universities (especially in the US); changes in what constitutes 'expertise' which affects professors who have traditionally been seen to be the 'experts' in our chosen domains; and the likely impact of AI on universities (our teaching / research, and its impact on society). This is essentially a 3-part talk, in which Rudy will explore the nature of these changes offering thoughts about what these changes mean for the long-term survival of the professoriate.

Bio: Rudy Hirschheim (PhD, London School of Economics) is the Ourso Family Distinguished Professor of Information Systems at Louisiana State University. He has previously been on the faculties of the University of Houston, the London School of Economics (University of London), Templeton College (University of Oxford) and McMaster University (Canada). He is past Senior Editor for Information and Organization and Journal of the Association for Information Systems. He is on the editorial boards of: Journal of Management Information Systems, Information Systems Journal, Journal of Information Technology and Journal of Strategic Information Systems. He holds the LEO Award for Lifetime Achievement and is a Fellow of the Association for Information Systems (AIS). He has been awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Oulu (Finland) and the University of Bern (Switzerland).