Transatlantic intellectual networks in the General Studies university reform movement: the role of Puerto Rico.

Abstract

Although the General Studies move­ment had its beginnings in the Uni­ted States in the 1920s, it developed important intellectual and institutio­nal linkages with other related mo­vements in Europe, the Caribbean, Central America and Latin America. Puerto Rico became part of that mo­vement in the 1940s on the initiative of Chancellor Jaime Benítez and his collaborators. The influence of José Ortega y Gasset´s ideas on universi­ty reform in Puerto Rico predate the linking up with the General Studies movement in the United States. To a great extent, the links the Univer­sity of Puerto Rico developed with both networks, the General Studies movement in the US and Ortega´s own political and philosophic ne­tworks in Spain and Latin America, were an important aspect both of its own reform process and the interna­tional prominence it gained during this period. The academic relations­hip with Costa Rica was particularly close. Puerto Rico’s role in these mo­vements offers new insights into the mid 20th century university reform process by placing it in a broad inter­national scenario.