The Scholar and Social Change: Writing between Research and Political Urgency

While scholarship has a fraught relationship with timely action, some scholars understand and position their intellectual activities as promoting real-world change to bring about a more equitable and just future: By better understanding a seemingly intractable problem, we should be better able to empower others with actionable knowledge. And by better reflecting on the socio-political role of scholarship, we should be able to bridge the gap between knowledge and action. This composition course is devoted to reflecting on our role as members of both a scholarly community and a system beset by powerful interests working to preserve exploitative practices that degrade our health, our environment, and our dignity. Specifically, "The Scholar and Social Change" develops theoretical models and research strategies to investigate how overlapping histories of systemic oppression affect the production of knowledge and power. In seminar-style class discussion we will connect urgent affairs of the day to academic literature on environmental justice, critical race theory, postcolonialism, intersectionality, corporate disinformation, and neoliberalism. Ungraded research exercises will practice finding and making use of Supreme Court decisions, government research agencies, newspapers, and case studies on St. Louis and Washington University. Readings will include works by scholars reflecting on political action, modeling social engagement, and holding their own disciplines to account. As we read the authors on the syllabus -- including Naomi Oreskes, Keeanga Yamahtta-Taylor, Julie Sze, Nick Estes, Laura Pulido, Kendall Thomas, Gayatri Spivak, and Judith Butler -- we'll ask how scholarship can be a political vocation and what that may mean for us as writers and researchers. Assessment will include research essays, peer interviews, reflection posts, and oral presentations with graded draft workshops built into the class schedule. Considerable freedom will be given to students to craf
Course Attributes: BU Hum; AS HUM; FA HUM; AR HUM; EN H

The Scholar and Social Change: Writing between Research and Political Urgency

AMERICAN CULTURE STUDIES 2072

Section 01