This is a site about the rapid transformation of higher education in the age of generative AI.
The name comes from a well-known passage by Marx and Engels:
“The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionising the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society… All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and [humanity] is at last compelled to face with sober senses [its] real conditions of life, and [its] relations with [its] kind.”
Generative AI is now revolutionizing the instruments of knowledge production and unsettling long-standing practices of teaching, learning, writing, and academic work itself.
Melts into Air chronicles this upheaval and asks what thoughtful, critical adaptation might look like.
All that was solid about the university is melting into air.
Nik Janos is a Professor of Sociology at California State University Chico. He is co-editor of the book “Urban Cascadia and the Pursuit of Environmental Justice.” His academic interests are urbanization, globalization, technology, and energy.
Zach Justus is a Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences at California State University Chico and the Director of Faculty Development. He has published research on teaching/learning and other topics. His work can be found in Argumentation and Advocacy and Communication Teacher as well as other edited volumes and journals.