Professor Joel Faflak
ARTHUM 1020E
As one of the cornerstones of higher education, intellectualism (and intellectuals), like the Arts and Humanities, seem to be increasingly under attack, often targets of public suspicion. That is to say, there is an increasingly anti-intellectual mood in the air. Whereas previously the university was a bastion of intellectual work separate from outside response or influence, increasingly we’re called upon to make our research public, to be public intellectuals. But this role goes back at least to Emile Zola’s letter to the President of France in response to the Dreyfus Affair, “J’Accuse . . . !”, even to Socrates, who was sentenced to death for refusing to renounce his beliefs. Investigating the past, present, and future roles of the public intellectual, this course and especially your final project for the course thus urge you to ask as you begin your time in SASAH, and in university in general: What does it mean to be an intellectual in the twenty-first century? Does, can, or should what we do in the classroom and in our research have a more direct public impact? If so, what is the role of the Arts and Humanities in making this impact? Above all, what is your role and responsibility as a public intellectual, whether as a student or elsewhere in your lives, especially at a time when hope for the future seems more necessary than ever?
Students have explored a variety of historical and contemporary examples and definitions of the public intellectual. In their final project, they were urged to explore – in whatever form they wanted, creative, critical, visual, multimedia – how they see themselves as an engaged public intellectual.
The Public Intellectual: Resistance and Hope
"For the first time in years, I walked our old route. I smiled at the large rocks we would rest upon to divulge our latest profundities. I had the urge to rest against one, but I fought it. I knew I’d likely cry, and if Rosalind were anywhere up in the blue sky watching me, she’d scoff and tell me that she existed somewhere."
The Tragic Convergence of Science and Art
by Midori Anderson
"To every mother, sister, and daughter,
to my own mother, sister, and friends,
and to every human who has ever felt confined
by these labels of what it means to be a “woman”
I dedicate this."
The Female Experience:
An Analysis of Women’s Bodily Autonomy
by Cara Chow
"My teachers did not create an atmosphere where my art could become emotionally vulnerable. I feel so much. All the time. And I felt so detached from that part of myself because being emotional was feminine and being feminine was wrong."
Forgive and Forget Until I Miss
by Giselle D'Anna
Take This Pink Ribbon Off My Eyes: Reflection
by Isabelle Fox
"In other words, educational systems do not contribute to developing curious, creative, or intellectual members of society but rather shape individuals based on how they should behave to maintain the status quo."
Evidence
by Claire Meerkamper
"It’s dirty, and it’s grimy, but it’s dynamic. I don’t really ever want to be fully healed, because that means I can’t grow. I want all the dirt, bacteria, and venereal diseases that the world has to offer."
by Jaya Sinha
Radio Silence
Book Banning: The Epitome of Anti-Intellectualism
by Jadyn Smith
Next Generation Public Intellectualism
by Kenzie Kilmer
Cottagecore: The Neo-Romanticism
by Jessie Yang