Anthropology 516
Public Interest Workshop: Scholarship in Action
2007
Room 345 University Museum. Mondays 2-4.
(Cross-listed URBS 516 and AFST 516)
Peggy Sanday, Prof. Dept. of Anthropology
with
Michael Delli Carpini, Dean Annenberg School of Communications
&
John Jackson. Prof, Annenberg School of Communications and Anthropology Department
Purpose: The theme of the 2007-2008 Public Interest Workshop is Scholarship in Action. In this workshop we address different ways that scholars connect theory with action in the public domain. Reading classic works by engaged scholars and public intellectuals, we focus on (1)the synergistic relationship between intellectual work and civic engagement and (2)discuss the ways in which engaged scholars and prominent public intellectuals “increase the efficacy of their political interventions in and through the vigorous defense of their independence from economic and political powers” (Bourdieu l989). The aim is to come out of the class with an understanding of how we as students, scholars and citizens can use and/or develop scholarship to engage the central questions of our times. A prominent goal of the course is to distill from the readings a conceptual, methodological, and critical framework for a Public Interest Social Science..
Topics considered are:
1. Role of the Public Intellectal: (Bourdieu, Said, Zizek, Negri, Gramsci);
2. Feminist Public Intellectuals: ( Judith Butler, Seyla Benhabib, Nancy Fraser);
3. Key concepts: public(s); public sphere; civil society; freedom; the social concomitants of difference; multiculturalism; interests; public interest sphere; public opinion; public reason;
3.The Media and Representation: evolution and devolution of common sense (doxo) spheres (ie. liberalism, left, right, common sense, doxa of political parties etc.) in the formation of political subjects in the form of citizen action..
The Workshop is offered for credit to advanced undergraduates and graduate students. Students will write reviews and/or critiques of the readings as a way to develop a reflexive profile of themselves as public intellectuals. For the final paper students will analyze and critique a public interest theme with which they are engaged. Included in this paper should be a translation into a publicly consumable form. The latter can range from a journalistic essay or a short video to the creation of a website or a pod-cast. The purpose of these assignments is to give students the opportunity to practice integrating theory and action with the intent of circulating knowledge in the public sphere.
Class Schedule and Readings:
Part I: Role of the Public Intellectual: The life and times of Bourdieu, Edward Said, Slavoj Zizek and Antonio Negri: Templates for Public Interest Scholarship and Action.
Week 1: 9/10
Pierre Bourdieu
· Acts of Resistance: House of our Own Bookstore (HOO)
· Pierre Bourdieu and Democratic Politics: The Mystery of Ministry (HOO) Chs 1, , 7, and 9 (peruse other chapters).
Week 2: 9/17
Edward Said
· Orientalism: Edward Said (HOO)
· James Clifford’s review of Orientalism (Bb)
· Nadia Abu El-Haj: “Edward Said and the political present;” (Bb)
· Peruse Articles by Said: (1) Zionism from the point of view of its victims; (2) Dignity, Solidarity, and the Penal Colony (articles on Bb)
·
Week 3: 9/24
Slavoj Zizek
· Welcome to the Desert of the Real: Zizek (HOO)—read mainly to figure out what Zizek means by “the real.”
· See with a friend: Film: Zizek! (2005) Follows the life of Public Intellectual Slavoj Zizek as he travels across the globe (get from library);
Gramsci
· Read Gramsci on The Organic Intellectual (Bb)
Antonio Negri
Read Negri and Hart on Democracy: suggest preface and last chapter of Multidude (Bb). Look at film on Negri with a friend
Part II. Public Intellectuals and Lived Oppression
Week 4: 10/1
· Feminist Contentions: A Philosophical Exchange (HOO)
· Judith Butler: Competing Universalities; Dynamic Conclusions (Bb)
Week 5: 10/8
· W.E.B. DuBois The Philadelphia Negro 1899 Introduction & Chaps 1-3 (Bb)
· Lee Baker From Savage to Negro 1998. Chapter 5 on W.E.B. Dubois (Bb)
· Frantz Fanon Black Skin White Masks(Bb)
· Grant Farred: What’s My Name? Black Vernacular Intellectuals (Bb)
· Peruse O. Patterson: Freedom in the Making of Western Culture (Bb)
ASSIGNMENT: WRITE A REVIEW OF THESE PUBLIC INTELLECTUALS BASED ON THE READINGS: COMMENT ON TYPES OF PUBLIC INTELLECTUALS REPRESENTED IN THE READINGS (TOTAL, SPECIFIC, COLLECTIVE; ORGANIC INTELLECTUALS; FEMINISTS)—TO WHICH DO YOU ASPIRE TO AND WHY? [Note: Wacquant comments on total, specific, and collective intellectuals in his article on Bourdieu and Democratic Politics assigned for Bourdieu readings; Gramsci discusses organic intellectuals. See Week 4 for the public intellectuals identifying with a feminist framework.
Part III: Themes and Working Concepts
FALL BREAK: 10/13-16
Week 6: 10/22
What is “the Public?”
· Public(s): John Dewey: The Public and Its Problems (Bb) pp. 38-142 (peruse)
· Peggy R. Sanday: Public Interest Anthropology: A Model for Engaged Research http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~psanday/PIE.05.htm (Bb)
· Michael Warner: Publics and Counterpublics, 2002, Public Culture (Bb)
WEEK 7: 10/29 [NOTE: SANDAY WILL BE IN IRELAND FOR THIS SESSION. I SELECTED DEMOCRACY FOR THIS SESSION BECAUSE IT WOULD LEAD IN TO THE NEXT SESSION ON ROGERS SMITH. I SELECTED THE READINGS FROM LAST YEAR ON DEMOCRACY. PLEASE CHANGE ACCORDING TO WHAT YOU THINK IS BEST FOR THIS YEAR.]
Democracy
· West, C (2005) Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism (selected chapters)
· Nye, J; Kamarack, E. (1999) Democracy.com (Selected Chapters)
· Hardt, M; Negri, A. (2005) Multitude (Democracy section)]
Week 8: 11/5
Freedom; Interests; Peoplehood
· Continue perusing Freedom in the Making of Western Culture. Orlando Patterson
· Stories of Peoplehood. Rogers Smith (HOO) [esp. Intro. Ch. 1 and 4 with hard look at Ch. 2.]
PART IV—Themes: Exercising Freedom (Spaces for; and ways of)
WEEK 9: 11/12
Civil Society
· Delli Carpini, M (1996) “The Internet and an Informed Citizenry”,
· Putnam, R. (2000) Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. (selected chapters);
· Sirianni, C; Friedland, L. (2001) Civic Innovation in America: Community Empowerment, Public Policy and the Movement for Civic Renewal. (selected chapters)
Week 10: 11/19
The Public Sphere and Counter Publics
· Habermas: Habermas and the Public Sphere, ed. Craig Calhoun, (HOO):
(Peruse book: Read pp: 4-9; 73-98; 110-113; 117-118; 128-137; Chapters 15, 17, 18).
PART IV Action and Vision Spheres
Communication and Media
Week 11: 11/26
Media Journalism and Democracy
· McChesney, R (1999) Rich Media Poor Democracy(Introduction) or Communication Revolution: Critical Junctures and the Future of Media (2007)
· Delli Carpini, M (2004) “News from Somewhere: Journalistic Frames and the Debate about Public Journalism” in Framing the News;
· Jay Rosen. What Journalists Are For. 1999(?). (selected chapters);
Week 12: 12/3
Resistance and Social Movements
· Cleaver, H (1996) “The Electronic Fabric of Struggle”;
· Klein, N (2002) No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs (No Logo Section)
· Hardt, M; Negri, A. (2005) Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire (Multitude Section)
· The Indy Media Movement