Antonio Fausto Neto 274 and social actors. And, as a third moment, aspects that involve the deepening of mediatization on the university ambiance caused by the pandemic and its manifestations on university practices and interactions. a) The university as a mediation matrix Along the paths, the university institution based on the notions of autonomy and freedom of professorship, constitut- ing itself according to rituals that operated its possibilities of sharing knowledge and disciplines, according to the forms of exchanges between its representatives and society. For a long time, the protagonist figure of the professor stood out as the central spokesperson for the university, a co-organizer, and a co-mediator of the announcement and sharing of knowledge (SERRES, 2013). This matrix has an extensive path, and many experiments get carried out in it through its techno-pedagogical ritu- als that have repercussions, including in its governability. But, over the years, it has been transformed, including the task performed by the professor as a “messenger place.” Commenting on the nature of this mediator, Professor Gerard Steiner (born on April 23, 1929, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France; dead in February 2020, Cambridge, Unitd Kingdom) said, in an interview on the importance of the teaching work associated to the post- man metaphor as message delivery man: “It is a very beautiful job to be a professor, one who delivers letters, although he does not write them. We are postmen, and we are important. Writers need us to reach their audience. It is a very important function, but it is not the same as creating” (CRUZ, 2009). The professor’s craft was initially replaced by technologies affili- ated with the “mass media” matrices and, later, by digital devices, as species of new “emerging pedagogues.” In the past, the symbolism of the university was engendered in practices of contacts, embodied in more distant terms, in the academic missions that visited us as bearers of innovations, many of which were implemented in Brazil and solidified the possibil- ity of higher education, even before the creation of university cities. It was only later that the condensation of the university
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