It is often said that universities are conservative organizations, slow to change, wedded to their ancient rites and cherished routines, or to newer traditions more of the “invented” type, as when universities established in the twentieth century in Latin America distort history…
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With the phrase “fragile, though tenacious beasts,” philosopher George Steiner attempted to describe the complex circumstances that permeate the institutional life of universities throughout the world, in his book Errata: An Examined Life. Despite today’s sweeping changes in universities in Latin America and beyond, these complex circumstances, this fragility, this determination, have existed almost since the foundation of universities more than a thousand years ago and even before the existence of nation-states. /Con el título que encabeza este artículo, George Steiner (2009) intentaba dar cuenta de las complejas circunstancias que rodean el quehacer de la vida institucional de las universidades en el mundo, casi desde su fundación misma hace algo más de mil años e incluso antes de la constitución de los Estados-Nación.