Public Scholarship & Cultural Activism*
Instructor: Erica Lehrer
Winter 2010
Wednesdays 6:00 – 8:30 p.m.
LB-1014
Office Hours:
4:30 – 5:30 p.m. Wednesdays
1:00 – 2:30 p.m Fridays
(or by appt.)
LB-1029.03, x5463
elehrer@alcor.concordia.ca
We must take public scholarship seriously and frame broader and more-flexible
definitions of scholarship, research, and creative work. We must think boldly
about what we define as knowledge, what we regard as interesting, and whom we
call "scholars." The future demands it.
– Nancy Cantor & Steven D. Lavine, “Taking Public Scholarship Seriously.”
*Thanks to Julie Ellison for resources and inspiration for this syllabus
*
Readings will be discussed on the dates listed.
Please have completed the readings before these dates.
January 6
Introductions, plans, definitions
January 13
A Little History
What kinds of positions and roles have scholars and intellectuals traditionally
played? What factors influence what we deem their appropriate purview in society?
When, why, and how have they – and might they – push the boundaries?
Goldfarb, “Introduction” and “Who are the Intellectuals?” (40 pgs.)
Posner, “Setting the Stage” (23 pgs.)
Lutkehause, “Margaret Mead and the ‘Rustling-of-the-Wind-in-the-Palm-Trees
School’ of Ethnography.” (15 pgs.)
Paulson, excerpt from “Introduction” (5 pgs.)
Janny, “Thinking Out Loud: The Public Intellectual Is Reborn.” (3 pgs.)
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January 20
Practicing “Public Scholarship”: definitions, models, tensions
What does “public scholarship” mean to various practitioners? What motivates it?
How do the lives and careers of its practitioners change through the shift into such
new modes of knowledge production?
Mitchell (textbook) chapters: Mitchell, K.; Eagleton; Burawoy; Wright; Domke;
Lupton; Mitchell, D.; Ellison, Pickerill; Zinn; Massey. (65 pgs.)
Cantor & Levine, “Taking Public Scholarship Seriously.” (2 pgs)
Scobey, “Putting the academy in its place.” (4 pgs.)
Scobey, “Making Use of All of Our Faculties” (4 pgs)
"Public Scholarship" – by Any Other Name Would Be as Sweet? (10 pgs.)
January 27
Julie Ellison lecture 6 p.m.
“The fraught logic of positive thinking”
February 3
Being Disciplined: the intimate politics of professionalization
What happens to your understanding of, horizons for, and expectations about
creativity, inspiration, and knowledge production and consumption during graduate
school in the humanities? And what happens to you when you get out? How do
social, cultural, and economic pressures shape the creation of scholars today?
Schmidt, “Resistance” – last 3 chapters of Disciplined Minds (54 pgs.)
Ruddick, “The Near Enemy of the Humanities is Professionalism” (3 pgs.)
Cameron, “The Ivory Power” (2 pgs.)
Benton, “Is Graduate School a Cult?” (2 pgs.)
Benton, “Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don't Go” (2 pgs.)
Benton, “Just Don't Go,” Part 2 (2 pgs.)
Taylor, “End the University as we know it” (2 pgs.)
Paglia, “Take your thinking elsewhere!” (3 pgs.)
Stearns, “Some Modest Advice for Graduate Students” (6 pgs.)
Groening, “Grad School is Hell” (1 pg.)
Further Reading:
Myerson, “Preface,” Ch. 1, “Issues That Others Don’t Recognize,” “How Hard
Should You Push?” “Scouring Daily Details for Opportunities” “Vehicles
for Framing Meaning” in Tempered Radicals (27 pgs.)
Addams, “The Snare of Preparation”
WRK4US listserve discussion thread
Imagining America: Artists & Scholars in Public Life - Tenure Team Initiative
Delbanco, “The Universities in Trouble”
Jaschik “No Entry: the job crisis for faculty jobs.”
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February 10
On Having an Agenda:
negotiating advocacy and critique in and out of the academy
Does being a public scholar mean being an activist? What forms of activism, if any,
are appropriate for an academic? What are the hazards of activism in relation to
one’s occupation as teacher and researcher?
***Elena Razlogova visit to talk about Guantanamobile project
Calhoun, “Preface” in Engaging Contridictions (13 pgs.)
Hale, “Introduction” in Engaging Contridictions (26 pgs.)
Pulido, “FAQs” in Engaging Contridictions (22 pgs.)
February 17
Relation & Translation:
community, collaboration, and civic engagement
How can we transform our creative and intellectual work into public work and
public scholarship? What might “cultural activism” look like?
Lacy, “Mapping the Terrain”
Adams & Goldbard, “Unifying Principles” & “Theoretical & Historical
Underpinnings” in Creative Community
McCoy “What kind of talk does democracy need?” (16 pgs.)
Hiatt, “We Need Humanities Labs” (4 pgs.)
(also read comments – esp. “Solitude May Lead to Independent Thinking”)
Further Reading:
Koch, “Excellence in Campus-Community Partnerships in the Arts, Humanities,
and Design”
Citizenship potluck brochure
Semester
Break
************************
March 3
Bill Cleveland lecture 6 p.m.
“Doing arts-based community development”
3
March 10
The Pleasures and Perils of “Culture Work”
Working between the academy and the community can be inspiring and
empowering, but also frustrating and compromising in multiple ways. What can we
learn, both practically and theoretically, through close examination of attempts at
such boundary-crossing public cultural work?
Shryock, “In the Double Remoteness of Arab Detroit: reflections on ethnography,
culture work, and the intimate disciplines of Americanization” (38 pgs.)
Kurin, “Brokering Culture” & “The New Study and Curation of Culture” (32 pgs.)
Green, “Prologue” & “Bringing the Boundaries of History Closer to People’s
Lives.” (40 pgs.)
March 17
Where Does Knowledge Reside and How Does it Flow?
Vectors of wisdom and expertise
Who and what is an intellectual? Where does intellectual work take place? How
can knowledge about culture – and culture itself – be created democratically? What
is a public intellectual? What is activist research?
Cushman, “The Public Intellectual, Service Learning, & Activist Research.” (8 pgs)
Appadurai, “Grassroots Globalization & the Research Imagination.” (18 pgs.)
Duneier, excerpt from Sidewalk (34 pgs.)
Kelley, “Preface” & “When History Sleeps: A Beginning” Freedom Dreams (18 pgs.)
March 24
Genres of Communication & Dissemination
It’s a cliché that academics talk and write in unnecessary abstractions and
impenetrable jargon. But what implicit “rules,” assumptions and relations may be
embedded in academic discourse? And if we hope to engage with the public, how
might we “translate” how we speak and write into accessible, inspiring forms?
***Translation assignment due in class
Tannen, “Agonism in academic discourse.” (18 pgs.)
Behar, “Dare We Say “I”?” (2 pgs.)
Talarico, “Deliteracy,” and “The Role of the Poet.” (49-56 and 73-86) in Spreading
the Word. (19 pgs.)
Becker, “Risk” in Writing for Social Scientists (12 pgs.)
Dunlap, “We are the Second Superpower” and “Understanding the Silence” in
Undoing the Silence. (25 pgs.)
Readings for assignment:
Dunlap pp. 202-206, 209-218
Cizek, “Filmmaker-in-Residence manifesto”
Lewis, “Uncommon Knowledge: Surprising Insights from the Social Sciences”
Lehrer, Writing genres handout
Further readings:
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Cizek, “Storytelling for Advocacy”
Campbell, “Tricky Tropes: Styles of the popular and the pompous.”
March 31
Imagining a Civically-Engaged Museology
Museums have begun to take curatorial and programmatic risks in the past two
decades in response to financial, cultural, and political pressures. What privileged
role might museums play in the pursuit of civic engagement and cultural activism?
Tchen, “Creating a Dialogic Museum.” (28 pages.)
Stein, “Sins of omission.” (4 pgs.)
McLean, “Museum Exhibitions and the Dynamics of Dialogue.” (22 pgs.)
Noriega, “On Museum Row: Aesthetics & the Politics of Exhibition” (20 pgs.)
Scheuerman, “Stuffitude: Richard Rabinowitz and the Art of Exhibitry” (4 pgs.)
Further Reading:
Chew, “Taking Action!”
April 7
Cultural Memory & Public Places
How is cultural heritage made manifest in the landscape? How might we curate
cultural memory and historical research to enhance public places?
Hayden, “The Power of Place” (64 pgs.)
Sevcenko “The Power of Place” (10 pgs.)
Hass, “The Things” (16 pgs.)
Shimon Attie video, “Between Dreams and History”
Further Reading:
Green, Ch. 6 “Releasing Silenced Voices and Uncovering Forgotten Places in the
American South.”
Final exam
day
Final presentations and party!
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COURSE ASSIGNMENTS
Due Dates & Evaluation:
 Class participation (discussion, blogging, in-class writing, preparedness, engagement): 35%
 Discussion leading (includes presentation outline): 20%
 Translation exercise (Due March 24th): 10%
 Final project (includes prospectus (Due March 3rd), presentation and final document(s) (Due
on final exam day): 35%
Blogging & Keywords Glossary:
It is important to create a body of writing throughout the course. This will become a resource for you
going forward. Please write a blog posting on the course Moodle site by 5 p.m. the night before each
seminar meeting. Say something about the reading, but feel free to reflect on any aspect of public
scholarship and cultural activism or our collective endeavor in the course. You may include
reflections about yourself, the public dimension of your writing, and relevant photos, video, or
sketches. Think of these writings as experiments in trying out your voice(s) as a public scholar and to
prep for class discussion. Try to keep it concise, so everyone will feel encouraged to read all the posts.
Discussion leading:
Each student will be part of a team of two (occasionally three) students to lead discussion during one
of the class sessions. This involves preparing an introductory presentation on a relevant aspect or
aspects of that day’s theme and readings, and then engaging the other members of the class in
discussion and possibly a generative activity around it. The presentation should be at least 30 minutes
in length, and be based on an outline that you will hand in to the instructor at the beginning of class.
We will sign up for dates during the first meeting. (N.B. discussion leaders should consult with me
prior to their scheduled slot, to determine what other activities are also planned for that day).
Translation exercise:
Choose an academic article or book that has made an impact on you, and translate it into accessible
language. Choose a genre for your translation (op-ed, brochure, public placard, radio/tv spot, open
letter to a public official, etc.) and an outlet/site (CBC radio, CJNT TV Montreal, a particular street
corner, etc.). Think about audience. You may use additional media or strategies to augment your
translation, but please write in the ballpark of 500 - 1000 words. Be prepared to present your
translation to the class. Pass in to me the original text along with your translation.
Final Project Prospectus:
This is a 1000 - 1500 word document in which you begin to imagine yourself as a public scholar
and/or cultural activist. Briefly outline your ideas for how your own interests and your own or others’
research might become a project of public scholarship or cultural activism. You may include sketches,
photographs, collage, maps or anything that helps you imagine.
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Please include the following:
• the things you have to say
• what motivates you
• the debates you want to contribute to
• info on where those debates are happening (publications, conferences, community venues, etc.)
• the kind of people participating in those debates (academics in your discipline, other academics,
policy makers, community members, practitioners, etc.)
• ideas of how and where to communicate the things you have to say
• assets and challenges do you foresee regarding leadership, collaboration, resources, etc.
• power relations among participants that impact your project
• ideas from the course readings that are “good to think with” vis-à-vis your topic
Final Project Presentation:
Please address the following questions in a 5 - 7 minute presentation:
• the subject of intellectual interest
• what motivates you
• the debates you want to contribute to
• why you chose this medium/format
• what assets and challenges do you foresee regarding leadership, collaboration, resources?
• power relations among participants that impact your project
• other relevant issues
Final Project:
Using some aspect of your own or someone else’s research, choose one of the 5 options below.
***Your final project includes (1) an updated project prospectus, (2) documentation of your process/product in a
form suitable for posting on web, and (3) a 150 word abstract/summary of the project.
Group Option:
You may work with a group for the final project, and I encourage it if you are so inclined. A few
caveats:
- My expectations for the complexity, stage of "completion," and "production value" will rise with
each additional person you add to the group.
- Each person must submit their own, individual prospectus, updated prospectus, and 5-7 minute
section of the final presentation that discusses your individual vision, role, and reflection on the course
readings, project process and product. The required abstract and documentation of the final project for
posting on the web should only be done once for each project group, but it should incorporate your
group's multiple perspectives, and again, the expectations will be higher than for an individual project.
- You will be graded separately for your contribution to the project (which you'll need to attempt to
make clear in your documentation), not as a group.
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(1) Make a 3-5 minute thought/opinion/documentary radio piece
Resources:



Stephanie Rowden workshop
http://transom.org/
“From Academic to Radio Producer” by Susan Basalla May
http://chronicle.com/article/From-Academic-to-Radio/4419
(2) Design an installation for a public site
Resource: Rowden, Smotrich, Lehrer presentation
(3) Design an exhibit module
(use wall placards, objects, labels, audio/video, and anything else you like).
Resource: “Collecting Stories, Connecting Objects”:
http://dl.lib.brown.edu/mln/cswn/csco/
(4) Design and trial run a civically engaged event that creates dialogue around your research topic
Resources: Citizenship Potluck brochure & Sundiata poem
(5) Design a “site of conscience” connecting a historical site with a pressing contemporary issue
Resource: Sevcenko, “The Power of Place”
OTHER READINGS & RESOURCES
Project planning:
Telling and Listening in Public: Factors for Success
http://www.communityarts.net/readingroom/archivefiles/2001/02/telling_and_lis_2.php
Career considerations:
Graduate Socialization in Anthropology [this is relevant to other disciplines, too!]
http://socialization.decasia.org/index.html
Beyond Academe – web resource
http://www.beyondacademe.com/
Chronicle of Higher Education "Beyond the Ivory Tower" Columns
http://chronicle.com/section/Advice-Columns/144/
Concordia Resources:
http://qpirgconcordia.org/cure/
The Community-University Research Exchange (CURE) is a database by which students can
integrate their academic research with the work of local movements and activist
organizations. Through the administrative infrastructures already in place at McGill and
Concordia University, students may complete a CURE research project as an independent
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study course, internship, or thesis advised by a departmental professor, or as a term project
for an upper-level class. By connecting students to non-profit community groups with limited
resources, we hope to encourage and support academic research that is socially relevant.
Other inspirations:
Imagining America: Artists & Scholars in Public Life
http://www.imaginingamerica.org/index.html
“The Other Education” – Roger Cohen
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/27/opinion/27brooks.html?th&emc=th
Full citations of assigned works:
Adams, Don, & Goldbard, Arlene. (2001). Creative community: The art of cultural community
development. New York: Rockefeller Foundation.
Appadurai, Arjun. Grassroots globalization and the research imagination. Public Culture, 12(1),
1-19.
Becker, Howard S. (1986).Writing for social scientists: How to start and finish your thesis,
book, or article. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Behar, Ruth. (1994, June 29). Dare we say ‘I'? Bringing the personal into scholarship. Chronicle of
Higher Education, pp. B1-B2.
Benton, Thomas H. (2009, January 30). Graduate school in the humanities: Just don't go.
Chronicle of Higher Education, pp. C1, C4. (http://chronicle.com/article/Graduate-School-inthe/44846).
Benton, Thomas H. (2004, June 28). Is graduate school a cult? Chronicle of Higher Education,
50 (42), p. C3. (http://chronicle.com/article/Is-Graduate-School-a-Cult-/44676/)
Benton, Thomas H. (2009, March 13). Just don't go, part 2.” Chronicle of Higher Education, pp. C1, C4.
(http://chronicle.com/article/Just-Dont-Go-Part-2/44786/)
Cameron, Julia. (1992) “The Ivory Power.” In The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher
Creativity. New York: Tarcher.
Campbell, Alan. (1996). Tricky tropes: Styles of the popular and the pompous. In Jeremy
MacClancy & Chris McDonaugh, (Eds.), Popularizing anthropology (pp. 58-82). London:
Routledge.
Cantor, Nancy, & Lavine, Steven D. (2006, June 9). Taking public scholarship
seriously.Chronicle of Higher Education, 52(40), p. B20.
(http://chronicle.com/article/Taking-Public-Scholarship/22684/)
Chew, Ron. (2004). Taking action! Advocates? Or curators of advocacy? Museum News, 83(2), 38–43.
Cushman, Ellen. (1999). The public intellectual, service learning, and activist research. College English,
61(3), 328-336.
Duneier, Mitchell. (1999). Sidewalk. NY: Farrar Straus and Giroux.
Dunlap, Louise. (2007). Undoing the Silence: Six tools for social change writing. Oakland, CA:
New Village Press.
Groening, “Grad School is Hell” (1987) http://www.futurama-area.de/LiH/OComics/16.gif
Goldfarb, J. C. (1998). Civility and subversion: The intellectual in democratic society. New York:
Cambridge University Press.
Green, James. (2000). Prologue & Chapter two: ‘Bringing the boundaries of history closer to
people’s lives’: The Massachusetts history workshop. In Taking history to heart: The power of the
past in building social movements (pp. 1-24 & 51-72). Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts
Press.
Hale, Charles R., (Ed.). (2008). Engaging contradictions: Theory, politics, and methods of activist
scholarship. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Hass, Kristin. (1998). Carried to the Wall: American Memory and the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial.
Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
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Hayden, Dolores. (1995). The power of place: Urban landscapes as public history. Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press.
Hiatt, Gina. (2005, October 26). We need humanities labs. Inside Higher Education.
http://www.insidehighereducation.com/views/2005/10/26/hiatt
Jaschik, Scott. (2010, January 4). No entry: The job crisis for faculty jobs. Inside Higher Education.
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/01/04/nojobs
Kelley, Robin D.G. (2002). Freedom dreams: The black radical imagination. New York: Beacon
Press.
Koch C. (2005). Excellence in campus-community partnerships in the arts, humanities and design.
Prepared for Imagining America, University of Michigan.
(www.imaginingamerica.org/IApdfs/05.KelloggReport.pdf)
Kurin, Richard. (1997). Reflections of a culture broker: a view from the Smithsonian. Washington,
D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Lacy, Suzanne (Ed.). (1995). Mapping the terrain: new genre public art. Seattle: Bay Press.
Lewis, Kevin. (2009, July 5). “Uncommon knowledge: Surprising insights from the social
sciences.” Boston Globe, p. K3.
(http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/07/05/uncommon_knowledge_
surprising_insights_from_the_social_sciences/)
Lutkehaus, Nancy. (1995). “Margaret Mead and the ‘rustling-of-the-wind-in-the-palm-trees’ school
of ethnography.” In Ruth Behar and Deborah A. Gordon (Eds.), Women Writing Culture (pp.
186-206). Berkley: University of California Press.
McCoy, Martha L., & Patrick L. Scully. (2002). Deliberative dialogue to expand civic
engagement: What kind of talk does democracy need?” National Civic Review, 117-135.
McLean, Kathleen. (1999). Museum exhibitions and the dynamics of dialogue. Daedalus, 128(3)
America's Museums, 83-107.
Mitchell, Katharyne (Ed.). (2008). Practising public scholarship: Experiences and possibilities
beyond the academy. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Meyerson, Debra E. (2003). Tempered radicals: How everyday leaders inspire change at work.
Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Noriega, Chon A. (1999). On museum row: Aesthetics and the politics of exhibition." Daedalus,
128(3), 57-82.
Paglia, Camille. (1998, October 21). Take your thinking elsewhere! Salon, Camille on Campus,
http://www.salon.com/it/col/pagl/1998/10/21pagl.html
Paulson, William R. (2001). Literary culture in a world transformed: a future for the humanities.
Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Posner, R. A. (2001). Public intellectuals: A study of decline. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press.
Ruddick, Lisa. (2000, November 23). The near enemy of the humanities is professionalism.
Chronicle of Higher Education, pp. B7-B9. (http://chronicle.com/article/The-Near-Enemy-ofthe/15135)
Scheuerman, Daniel. (2008). “Stuffitude: Richard Rabinowitz and the art of exhibitry.” Humanities,
29(4). http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/2008-07/exhibitry.html
Schmidt, Jeff. (2000). Disciplined minds: A critical look at salaried professionals and the soulbattering system that shapes their lives. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Scobey, David. (2006). Making use of all our faculties: Public scholarship and the future of Campus
Compact.” In B. Holland and J. Meeropol (Eds.), A more perfect vision: The future of campus
engagement. Providence, RI: Campus Compact.
Scobey, David. (2002). Putting the academy in its place. Places, 14(3), 50-55.
Scott, Janny. (1994, August 9). Thinking out loud: The public intellectual is reborn. New York
Times, p. B1. (http://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/09/nyregion/thinking-out-loud-thepublic-intellectual-is-reborn.html?pagewanted=1)
Sevcenko, Liz. (2004). The power of place: How historic sites can engage citizens in human
rights issues. New Tactics Project of the Center for Victims of Torture, Minneapolis, MN.
http://www.newtactics.org/en/ThePowerofPlace
Shryock, Andrew. (Ed.). (2004). Off stage/on display: Intimacy and ethnography in the age of
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public culture. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.
Stearns, Stephen C. (1987). Some modest advice for graduate students. Bulletin of the Ecological
Society of America, 68, 145-50.
Stein, Judith. (1993). Sins of omission: Fred Wilson’s mining the museum.” Art in America,
81(10), 110-15.
Talarico, Ross. (1995). Deliteracy & The role of the poet. In Spreading the Word: Poetry and
Survival of Community in America (pp. 49-56 & 73-86). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Tannen, Deborah. (2002). Agonism in academic discourse. Journal of Pragmatics, 34(10), 16511669.
Taylor, Mark C. (2009, April 26). “The end the university as we know it.” New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/opinion/27taylor.html
Tchen, John Kuo. (1992). Creating a dialogic museum: The chinatown history museum
experiment. In Ivan Karp, Christine Kreamer and Steven Lavine (Eds.), Museums and
Communities: The Politics of Public Culture (pp. 288-326). Washington: Smithsonian Press.
Students of History at Concordia (SHAC)
Students of History at Concordia (SHAC) is a member association of the Arts and Science Faculty
devoted to the social and academic life of students in the history department. SHAC represents all
history majors, minors, specializations and students taking a history class as an elective. We organize
social and academic events and publish the undergraduate journal Historiae. For information on
getting help, getting published or upcoming events check out our webpage
http://www.shaconline.wordpress.com, join the Facebook group or stop by during our office hours to
say hi and get some free coffee in LB 620-2 (in order to be sustainable please bring your own mug). If
you have any questions we can be reached by email at SHAC@asfa.ca Have a great semester!
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