The Public Humanist

The Public Humanist has a new home

Cutting to the chase: The Public Humanist’s current and archived posts can now be found here: http://masshumanities.org/the-public-humanist/ And now to back up a little. Many of you will have gleaned that The Public Humanist is the one blog on the Valley Advocate site...

In Search of the Common Good

American society today suffers from two fundamental anxieties. One is economic and has many sources, including the accelerating pace of technological change, the impact of our economy and ways of life on the environment, the globalization of both labor and capital,...

The Limits of Reflection

By Joe Cruz In the wake of half chagrined confessions that I am a philosophy professor, not infrequently — and positively reliably on cramped airplanes — I’m asked what my personal philosophy is. It’s not an entirely unreasonable question....

A Philosopher's Calling Card

Every profession gets a standard response. You know, the response you get when you mention your work. Lawyers get the eye-roll. Doctors get the question about sore elbows and the like. Teachers get the nod of approval, then expressions of regret at how they’re...

The History of Moving Images

Lisa Simmons’ assertion that Hollywood films by and large continue to feature damaging stereotypes of African Americans strikes me as true. But Ms. Simmons’ urging that independent thinkers create images which challenge these stereotypes makes me wonder...

Teaching about Race

Mervan Osborne’s recent post made a great deal of sense to me. As a former high school history and humanities teacher (independent and public schools) and a member of the Education Department at Tufts, I found that race was a topic that, in some way, shape,...

Teaching and Learning the F Word

"I’m not a feminist." In classes I teach, a female student invariably tosses this one into conversation, using the phrase to make sure that, despite what she is about to say, no one should think badly of her. And I have taught many different kinds of...

Global warming IS a moral issue

In March 2007, leaders of several conservative Christian groups sent a letter to the National Association of Evangelicals complaining that the organization’s focus on global warming is diverting attention from “the great moral issues of our time,”...

Green on Our Minds

I have no quarrel with David Tebaldi calling global warming a moral issue, and certainly share his dismay at the notion that for Christians to be concerned about it takes attention away from the real moral issues – “abortion and sexual morality.”But...

Change Comes From the Bottom Up

During the July 23 CNN/YouTube Democratic presidential debate, Hillary Clinton was asked if she would describe herself as a liberal. A serious enough question you might say, but the audience laughed. Why? Mainly, I think, because “liberal” has long been...

Two cheers for liberalism

So what is American liberalism, and how (if at all) has it changed since the 60’s? Is it truly as irrelevant to our times as the "re-branding" of Senator Clinton and others would seem to indicate? In its broadest meaning, the classical political...

Humanities and the Pleasure Principle

Sometimes I feel like a hedonist. No doubt my wife — cosigner of our mortgage, mother to my two young children, and the woman who gave me my most prized possession (a push mower) — is curious to know when these times are. Well, they happen when talking...

Evaluating the Ephemeral

Cultural organizations in general and state humanities councils in particular have long struggled with the question of how to evaluate what they do. Is a good head-count at an event sufficient? Is a high level of engagement during a post-performance talk-back adequate...

The Rest of the World

A couple of weeks ago, when I was in Ireland, one of the foreign ambassadors posted there (who I suspect would prefer to be left unnamed) told a story at a dinner party. It went like this. The United Nations recently sponsored an international survey, asking the...

Cooperative Models of Foreign Policy

I recently heard from an alumnus who was being sent back to Iraq for his second tour of duty there. This news elicited all sorts of emotions, sadness and anger in particular. The sadness stems from concerns about the fundamental wrongheadedness of unilateral US...

Philosophy in Pop

There is this thing about lefty theory and activism that has always bothered me: implicit, even explicit, contempt for the very people with whom those theorists and activists consider themselves in solidarity. I would say the same, if not more, about academics....

The Possibilities of Global Studies

A great deal of discussion about casinos in Massachusetts has been in the news lately, but one brief comment by Governor Patrick really caught the attention of many educators. "Global education" and the subsequent "competitiveness" of Mass students...

Teaching World Cultures

Writing after Rachel is fun. Her story about reading Hersey’s Hiroshima with that third-period class brings the reality of teaching to the surface. That seems to me to be very rarely done when curricular mandates are launched. It is, I think, all well and good...

Friendship First

Anyone who prefers wealth or power to true friendship is out of his mind. Euripides, Herakles, 1425–26 Ancient Greek literature is replete with stories about, tributes to, and reflections on friendship. It might be said that, for any Greek with his or her head...

Our Worthy Adversaries – Friends

I’ve been teaching about friendship for the past couple of weeks – Jacques Derrida’s utterly enigmatic Politics of Friendship, to be specific – so I was thrilled to read a reflection by my cross-campus colleague Robert Meagher on where...

From Prose to the Silver Screen

The saying goes that badly written novels make great films and great novels make lousy films. True? Let’s put it to the test. Bringing up Baby: OK story, great movie (I think this had something to do with Cary Grant). Silence of the Lambs: OK book, great movie....

The Encumbered Image

Oh Jeez, how can I possibly say anything worthwhile on this subject after Lisa Simmons’ brilliant description of the Grub Street workshop in which Famous Authors whose books had been turned into Movies read actual Passages and then showed Relevant Film...

Neither Leaders Nor Heroes

At this time in the academic year, as my energy wanes and I become more encumbered by bureaucratic responsibilities, I find myself reflecting about the social utility of professors. As a political science professor, such reflections always draw me back to Max...

The Invested Voice

Around the foundation of my new house this fall, I discovered buried, immense, handsome flagstones near a back door, underneath layers of displaced gravel and sod that had evidently developed over a period of years. The layers of dirt had likely drifted downhill along...

Fightin' Words

One of the treasured objet d’art in my home in Austin is a little clipping from the Advocate that hangs on the fridge. It’s a letter to the editor, from Tim Grant of Berndardston, and it’s headlined “Stop Oppenheimer” (I call it the...

The Ethics of Civic Discourse

After nearly 30 years of organizing conferences, symposia, colloquia, reading and discussion programs, and panel discussions examining a vast array of public issues, you’d think I’d be an expert at handling controversy. I’m not. The conventional...

The viral and the local

Heather Brandon recently had a nice post here at The Public Humanist, about journalism and blogging, and also the place of the local online. Her post reminded me of this moment earlier this year, when one of my students blogged about a local billboard, the one you see...

Rereading Christmas

Christmas was yesterday but I’m sure I won’t be putting away the Christmas books that always float to the top of the general household clutter this time of year. Most of them are children’s books—enjoyed by my husband and I in childhood and now...

Newspapers and the Blogging Profession

Last fall, Los Angeles blogger Tony Pierce announced he would be leaving his position as editor of LAist.com to work at the LA Times in a new position running the newspaper’s 30 blogs.Soon after the news broke, I learned about it over lunch with Bill Densmore,...