Syllabus

Meeting Time and Place
Tue./Thurs. 1:00 - 2:30,  401 UH

Instructors and Office Hours
Prof. Stanley Fish, Dean, College of LAS
425 UH, by appointment only: 312-413-7329

Cary Nathenson, Ph.D., Center for Public Intellectuals
817 UH (T/Th 11:00 - 12:00 and by appointment)

Teaching/Research Assistants
Chad Brockman
817-1 UH (T/Th 2:30 - 4:00)
E-mail: cbrockma@uic.edu

David Potts
817-1 UH (T 12:00 - 1:00)
E-mail: dpotts@ameritech.net

Course Organization
This course is organized around a "contested concept," a concept the definition and shape of which are in dispute. The phrase "public intellectual" is often encountered in conversation and in writings, but no one quite knows what the category includes, or who are and are not its members, or if there is a strong connection between the flourishing of public intellectuals and democracy, or if the age of the public intellectual is over, or if it ever began, or, if it did begin, whether or not it was and is a good thing. Was Socrates a public intellectual? Was Shakespeare? Moliere? Francis Bacon? Thomas Jefferson? James Madison? Jonathan Swift? Goethe? Byron? Oscar Wilde? Disraeli? Walt Whitman? Daniel Webster? Frederick Douglass? Carrie Nation? Woodrow Wilson? Lenin? Churchill? Gary Wills? George Will? Charlie Rose? Mohammed Ali? Robert Redford? Ralph Nader? Al Gore? Rachel Carson? Margaret Mead? Gloria Steinem? bell hooks? Regis Philbin? John Lennon? Bob Dylan? Sting? Bill Maher? Hilary Clinton? Stephen Ambrose? Homer Simpson? If some of these are and others are not, what are the criteria? If all of these are, is "public intellectual" a real category or just a label we apply to people we've heard of? Would you want your children to grow up to be public intellectuals? Would you hire one? To do what? Is public intellectual a career choice? Can you get a degree in it? Is there a market for it? Does the country need public intellectuals? For what? What good are they? Have they been of any use in the aftermath of September 11th? Are they important enough to serve as the focus of a course?

These are just some of the questions posed in the essays collected in the coursepack of readings we have prepared for you. They are also the questions that will be asked and perhaps answered by the extraordinary men and women who have accepted an invitation to join us in this inquiry, and who, because they have themselves often been identified as public intellectuals, can serve as both guides to and models of the phenomenon that is our subject. Since the outlines of that phenomenon are at best blurred, a course designed to study it will inevitably experimental, and it is in the spirit of experimentation that we ask for your flexible, active and creative participation.

Course Materials
A required coursepack is available for purchase at Comet Press, 812 W. Van Buren. An assortment of books by and about the three visiting fellows are on reserve at the main library. Additional readings will be assigned at the discretion of the instructor for each session.

Course Requirements
Regular (indeed perfect) attendance, thoughtful presentation, and energetic involvement in discussions will be crucial to the success of our venture. We also ask that you attend both the public lectures to be offered by our three distinguished visiting fellows, and the capstone conference (April 19-20) sponsored and organized by The Center for Public Intellectuals, the group whose generosity has made this course possible.

Grades in the course will be geared to three assignments:

1. Each student will prepare in writing a one or two-page analysis of the day's reading three times during the semester.
2. Each student will complete one significant project designed in coordination with the instructors. Possible projects would include research papers with either an historical or contemporary focus; surveys (with commentary and conclusions) of attitudes toward intellectuals in particular populations; interviews of one or more persons identified as public intellectuals (again with commentary and conclusions); in depth profiles of a public intellectual that might include conversations with friends, enemies, fans, relatives; videos, comic operas, docu-dramas, staged confrontations and interventions, game shows, anything inventive; collaborative versions of any of the above are welcomed and encouraged.
3. Each student will contribute weekly to the course's email list (publicintellect@uic.edu) by reporting on public evidence (in newspapers, films, radio shows, novels, political pronouncements, etc.) of public awareness (either positive or negative) of public intellectuals. Once received, the emails will be placed on this course Web site (www.uic.edu/classes/las/las400).

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