Intellectual Entrepreneurship

Can Intellectuals Innovate in Ways that Produce a Better World?

Perhaps it is time for a new view of the university and its mission. The stereotypes of the university as ivory tower, as a secluded place on a hill and behind a metaphorical ivy-covered wall, and filled with a faculty performing ever more narrow and more esoteric research, may keep many from recognizing that a fundamental shift is taking place. The mission of our institutions of higher learning is evolving from "advancing the frontiers of knowledge" and "preparing tomorrow's leaders" to also serving as "engine of economic and social development." In the process, the role of faculty member evolves from that of "intellectual provocateur" to becoming what might be called an "intellectual entrepreneur."

Prof. Richard Cherwitz of the University of Texas notes:

"Intellectual entrepreneurship (IE) is premised on the belief that intellect is not limited to the academy and entrepreneurship is not restricted to business. Entrepreneurship is a process of cultural innovation. While the creation of material wealth is one expression of entrepreneurship, at a more profound level entrepreneurship is an attitude for engaging the world. Intellectual entrepreneurs, both inside and outside universities, take risks and seize opportunities, discover and create knowledge, innovate, collaborate and solve problems in any number of social realms: corporate, non-profit, government, and education. The aim of IE is to educate 'citizen-scholars' -- individuals who own and are accountable for their education and who utilize their intellectual assets to add to disciplinary knowledge and as a lever for social good."

As intellectual entrepreneurs, academics see themselves as innovators, as agents of change. The focus becomes cross-disciplinary collaborations aimed at translating intellectual advancements into real solutions to society’s problems and needs. An arm-length, dispassionate approach to the world is replaced by academic engagement for the purpose of changing lives. This is a perspective that far transcends traditional notions of community service or faculty/student volunteerism. It promises not only to change the communities and larger societies within which universities exist, but to eventually re-define the ways in which universities themselves are organized, funded, and how they operate.

Some of the emerging perspectives on intellectual entrepreneurship can be found by clicking the following links.

• "Re-envisioning the Arts Ph.D.: Intellectual Entrepreneurship and the Intellectual Arts Leader"
• University of Texas at Austin Professor Richard Cherwitz's web site, Intellectual Entrepreneurship: Educating Citizen Scholars
• Cherwitz, "Intellectual Entrepreneurship: The New Social Compact"
• Cherwitz & Darwin, "Crisis as Opportunity: An Entrepreneurial Approach to Productivity in Higher Education" (PDF)
• Cherwitz, "Diversifying Graduate Education: The Promise of Intellectual Entrepreneurship" (PDF)
• Cherwitz & Sievers, "Historians as Intellectual Entrepreneurs: Citizen-Scholars Build Bridge Between University and Community"
• Cherwitz & C. Sullivan, "Intellectual Entrepreneurship: Vision for Graduate Education" (PDF)
• Cherwitz & T. Sullivan, "Postdocs as Intellectual Entrepreneurs"
• Cherwitz, Darwin, & Grund, "Learning to be a Citizen-Scholar"
• Devine, "Developing Intellectual Entrepreneurship"
• Cherwitz, C. Sullivan, & Stewart, "Intellectual Entrepreneurship and Outreach: Uniting Expertise and Passion"
• David Hildebrand, "Academics Are Intellectual Entrepreneurs" (HTML - PDF)