This essay reflects on the nature of The University, sustained on the notion of autonomy as it has evolved in the West since the 18th century. It is an inquiry on the displacements that affect the university in a time of mundialization and on the transformations of its raison d être in the realm of the national. The university as we know it has been shaken and weakened by the radical changes taking place in the symbolic, economic, political, cultural, technological, social and subjective spheres of this new millennium. Such transformations have become evident in the metropolitan centers as well as its peripheries, where the university had already been challenged by other 20th century debates and events. The resultant structural fragility manifests itself as a crisis in how universities function and in the production of new forms of specialized knowledge –a knowledge that migrates and is subsequently territorialized deterritorialized in geopolitical, social and disciplinary crossroads. We acknowledge the abrupt emergence of new practices in research, teaching and expression, as they redefine the functions of university knowledge in our changing social realm. We consider it paramount to inscribe such practices in a historical framework as they condition the existence and the future of our university.