I seem to have fallen off the radar with this blog. For a few years I wrote almost daily entries or at the very least weekly. Perhaps it is that I have been so engaged in my personal relationship or maybe it is because I actually have someone to share my thoughts with. Whatever the reason, recent discussions about journalling reminded me that I still love put my thoughts down on digital paper, as it were.
I started this who thing when I went off to graduate school in 2005. Now some nine years later I have completed my journey down that path, having recently submitted my revisions for my PhD in Communications and Culture.
I was motivate to come back here after reading a column in the New York Times by William Kristoff, in which he decried the disappearance of the public intellectual and the failure of quantitative research to address the many social and political challenges in our modern society. He situates the blame squarely inside the academy and its obsession with narrow lines of intellectual inquiry along with the typical elitism label that right wingers love to throw at those who do not agree with them. In Canada, at least, public intellectuals have been under direct attack by the Harper government. Evidence based decisions are entirely absent form their planning, unless the evidence points towards voter-suppression ( they want this) or to rallying the hard core of their support.
I like to frame myself as a public intellectual and given that this blog has been my platform, I felt the need to return and to reactivate my discourse. Does anyone read this? I am really uncertain but that cannot be my singular motivation. My primary reason has always been to keep track of my own reflections. Should others wish to share in them they are free to do so. My concerns have always been wide-ranging and eclectic so some may find them rather random. But then my life has always been so.
And now that I have completed my graduate studies I can get back to my disorderly life.
I started this who thing when I went off to graduate school in 2005. Now some nine years later I have completed my journey down that path, having recently submitted my revisions for my PhD in Communications and Culture.
I was motivate to come back here after reading a column in the New York Times by William Kristoff, in which he decried the disappearance of the public intellectual and the failure of quantitative research to address the many social and political challenges in our modern society. He situates the blame squarely inside the academy and its obsession with narrow lines of intellectual inquiry along with the typical elitism label that right wingers love to throw at those who do not agree with them. In Canada, at least, public intellectuals have been under direct attack by the Harper government. Evidence based decisions are entirely absent form their planning, unless the evidence points towards voter-suppression ( they want this) or to rallying the hard core of their support.
I like to frame myself as a public intellectual and given that this blog has been my platform, I felt the need to return and to reactivate my discourse. Does anyone read this? I am really uncertain but that cannot be my singular motivation. My primary reason has always been to keep track of my own reflections. Should others wish to share in them they are free to do so. My concerns have always been wide-ranging and eclectic so some may find them rather random. But then my life has always been so.
And now that I have completed my graduate studies I can get back to my disorderly life.
