This article explores the professional and attitudinal boundaries that render much of our academic knowledge largely irrelevant to all but the members of each specific discipline. It further acknowledges the power of such knowledge to reinforce inequalities between teachers and learners. As a remedy, it proposes that the international medical aid agency Doctors Without Borders may be seen as an example of the potential for academics to cross or eliminate their own professional borders to generate knowledge useful in shaping a humane world.
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