Academic Mythography: The University as Ideas in Action

This article proposes academic mythography as a concept for analyzing universities as webs of ideas in action. Drawing on critical university studies and cases from Scandinavian history of ideas, it shows how disciplinary histories, affective attachments, institutional structures, and scholarly self-presentations shape universities at each current. This scripture orients imaginaries of the past and future, defining values, virtues, desirable knowledge, and who can embody them. Ultimately, academic mythography exposes political, ethical, and cultural dimensions of universities.