Leading Generously: Tools for Transformation
Join us for a book talk with Kathleen Fitzpatrick speaking about her newly published book Leading Generously: Tools for Transformation on Wednesday, November 20, 12–1:15 pm in 159 PLC. Seating is limited. Please register below.
In a world increasingly defined by crisis, public service institutions like colleges, universities, and nonprofit organizations require capable, dynamic, and trustworthy leadership—yet stories of leadership failures there abound. The problem, Kathleen Fitzpatrick argues in Leading Generously, is a fundamental mismatch between the communal purposes that leaders must serve and the individualistic structures under which they operate.
Transforming institutions so they can be resilient in the face of uncertain futures will require a similar transformation in leadership practices, turning hierarchies into collective and collaborative spaces designed for the common good. Doing so, however, requires a willingness to reimagine the idea of leadership itself. In this concise, approachable book, Fitzpatrick explores not just the problems with the institutional status quo but also the tools to transform it. Her wide-ranging research brings together key theories of leadership with the experiences of successful leaders whose stories demonstrate innovative possibilities for collaboration in the service of institutional transformation.
Building on her previous book Generous Thinking, this guide lays out a road map for how leaders can transform their institutions to truly align with their missions and can build more generous communities for the common good.
Kathleen Fitzpatrick is Interim Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies and Professor of English at Michigan State University. Prior to assuming this role, she was Director of DH@MSU and founding director of Mesh Research, a lab focused on the future of digital scholarly communication. Her work across her career has focused on building resilient, sustainable scholarly communities and transforming their processes of communication to foreground connection, conversation, and collaboration. Her latest book, Leading Generously: Tools for Transformation, is forthcoming from Hopkins Press in Fall 2024. She is author of three previous books, Generous Thinking: A Radical Approach to Saving the University (Hopkins Press, 2019), Planned Obsolescence: Publishing, Technology, and the Future of the Academy (NYU Press, 2011), and The Anxiety of Obsolescence: The American Novel in the Age of Television (Vanderbilt Press, 2006). She is project director of Knowledge Commons, an open-access, open-source network serving nearly 50,000 scholars and practitioners across the humanities and around the world.
Presented by the Oregon Humanities Center in collaboration with the Office of the Provost.