Let me introduce myself. I am Steve. I go to school at a mid-sized state university in the mid-west where I am working on earning my Ph.D. in American Culture Studies. This blog is in part an exploration of the concepts that are coming up in one of my current classes as I work towards my Ph.D. at BGSU. It is an opportunity for me to put some of my thoughts, as well as daily happenings, down for my classmates, friends, and anyone who might be interested.
The concept of the public intellectual extends back at least as far as Plato and continues to be a major issue today, just look at the uproar over Ward Churchill in recent weeks. So for thousands of years we, as members of societies, have struggled in one way or another to deal with the meaning of being someone whose primary goal was critical thinking while at the same time working and living in a world where that is fundamentally different from the lives of most people.
Yes, I know that for many people day-to-day living takes a priority over sitting around and theorizing of the meaning of being both in the public sphere of life and in the intellectual mode, but Antonio Gramsci, Italian Marxist Theorist, writes that everyone possesses some interest in thinking about significant things. He surmises the existence of an "organic intellectual" who is a member of the working/labor class that possesses a drive to think about the location and tasks of his class. This seems significantly different from the life of an Ivy League professor with the endowed chair. (Not that there is necessarily anything wrong with that. I think that many of us in academic pursuits would jump at the offer) One of my goals is to enact a form of connection through this blog in which I compose and present my thoughts and open them up to discourse by anyone who happens to find my blog.
My interests broaden out from this initial starting point quickly. In addition to hard core theory about the purpose of academics, I also write about culture, film, music, philosophy, and issues of faith and spirituality, and I would imagine that some of my time here will be about more simple and "organic" things.
To come...THE BEGINNINGS OF A PUBLIC INTELLECTUAL
No comments:
Post a Comment