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CST Reading Groups New Perspectives on Neoliberalism. Lead by Ayse Celikkol, English Department The many strands of liberalism we inherit in the twenty-first century form a chaotic mix. Historically, early-nineteenth century advocates of individual liberty opposed governmental regulation and advocated free trade. In the late nineteenth century, new liberals questioned whether restraining state power would really ensure individual liberty. By the 1980s, neoliberalism resuscitated the ideology of the free-market, gaining power with the Thatcher government in Britain and the Reagan administration in the U.S.. Since the 1980s, what has happened to neoliberalism? What is the trajectory of neoliberalism in the age of globalization? I hope to initiate a reading group addressing these questions. As a literary critic, my primary motivation is to develop a complex vocabulary to talk about the multiple facets of globalization. I am also interested in exploring how I can make discussions of nineteenth-century British literature (in which representations of free trade and laissez-faire abound) more relevant and interesting to my students. Some possibilities for the reading list include David Harvey’s A Brief History of Neoliberalism (2005, OUP), Melissa Wright and Jean Comaroff’s Millennial Capitalism and the Culture of Neoliberalism (2004, Duke U P), and Henry A. Giroux’s The Terror of Neoliberalism: Authoritarianism and the Eclipse of Democracy (2004, Paradigm). Please let me know if you’re interested and if you have any suggestions for the reading list. Community and Global Health. Lead by Jaine Strauss, Psychology Department and Devavani Chatterjea, Biology Departments This interdisciplinary reading group will explore the complex and multifarious area of community and global health. Through shared readings and discussion, we hope to: a) build campus awareness of the complex issues surrounding the health and disease of populations; b) provide the opportunity for intellectual community-building and cross-disciplinary dialogue about a topic that affects each of us personally, professionally, and politically; and c) support the creation of a new concentration in Community and Global Health by forging a shared language and intellectual foundation among faculty and staff with interests in this curricular area. We will meet approximately every other week throughout the Spring term. Although the participants in the reading group will collectively decide on the readings, we hope to provide both a broad overview of the field of public health as well as specialized readings that reflect the particular expertise represented by Macalester faculty and staff. We propose beginning with selected readings from Introduction to Public Health by Mary Jane Schneider. We would then turn to contemporary and classic texts that illustrate the core approaches to understanding community and global health. Possible topics include:
Participants in the seminar will decide the final reading list. We hope you will join us! What The Best College Teachers Do. Lead by Terry Krier, English; Libby Shoop, Computer Science; and David Matthes, Biology. Ken Bain was interested in what it really means to be a good teacher. In answering this question, he began by asking students from a wide variety of institution to tell him about teachers who had fundamentally changed the way they think about the world; who had changed their lives. He then studied these remarkable teachers, looking for the characteristics of great teaching. He found a diversity of approaches, but also some practices that were shared by all. His small, engaging book will provide a starting point for discussions about good teaching from our own experience. We hope to invite reflection on what we find challenging, frustrating, anxiety-provoking, and satisfying about teaching. What do we strive for as teachers, and what do we think of Bain's analysis and conclusions? The reading group leaders are from different disciplines, and hope to discuss disciplinary differences and our perceptions and misperceptions of one another's pedagogical challenges. Changes in Scholarly Publishing. Lead by Terri Fishel, Library Director. The digital environment is rapidly changing the
nature of scholarly publishing. These changes affect the way we
publish and access and use the work of others in our teaching and
scholarship. This reading group will explore these changes and the
implications for Macalester. Two books will provide a starting point:
The Social Life of Information by John Seely Brown and
Paul Duguid and The Open Access Principle: The Case for Open
Access to Research and Scholarship by John Willinsky. The group
will help choose additional readings, but they might include reports
such as University Publishing in a Digital Age, those by
scholarly groups including MLA and Art Historians, and studies done
by the University of California:
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