the article deals with the modernization process of the university and the consequent transformation of the profile of the university intelligentsia based on two case studies: the university of s？o paulo (usp) and the federal university of rio de janeiro (ufrj). the study covers the `70s, `80s and `90s, thereby emphasizing the changes that took place in the respective universities, after the 1968 reform. the analysis focuses on the faculty of philosophy, letters and human sciences of usp and on the institute of philosophy and social sciences of ufrj, highlighting the human sciences area. since the 1968 reform, these university units have been inserted in the bureaucratic and rationalizing logic of the capital, which has led to their dilution as privileged loci for critical, political and cultural resistance.
