[Discussion] NOTICE: "The Democratization of Cultural Criticism" - An H-Ideas Virtual Symposium

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

From: H-Net Announcements <announce@MAIL.H-NET.MSU.EDU>

A Virtual Symposium on George Cotkin's article "The Democratization of
Cultural Criticism"

H-Ideas: A member of H-Net Humanities & Social Sciences OnLine

http://www.h-net.org/~ideas/

April 28-29, 2005

Have cultural barbarians vanquished the life of the mind?

Absolutely NOT, observes intellectual historian George Cotkin, a Professor
of History at California State University, San Luis Obispo. He decries the
"mourners" among "our present generation of cultural critics" who believe,
in the wake of postmodernism and the commercialization of culture, that the
practice of cultural criticism "has been cast adrift, without any firm basis
for judgments."

In an article published in the July 2, 2004 issue of the Chronicle of Higher
Education, Cotkin challenges the view that seems to prevail among a certain
group of "Jeremiahs" who, he asserts, "huddle around their sad 
conclusion that
serious cultural criticism has fallen into a morass of petty bickering and
bloated reputations." To other observers of the same cultural trends, the
barbarians have not merely vanquished intellectual discourse they have
obliterated the landscape of the mind. Our brave new world is not 
controlled by
an all-powerful state but a seemingly benign market-Big Brother has been 
trumped
by Big Sam Walton.

The virtual symposium will begin at 10:00 am (EST) on Thursday, April 
28, 2005,
at which time Professor Cotkin's Chronicle article, along with a new
introduction, will be published electronically on the H-Ideas website,
www.h-net.org/~ideas/.

Rejoinders by Professors Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn of the Maxwell School at 
Syracuse
University and David Steigerwald of Ohio State University will be published
electronically shortly thereafter. After a further round of responses by the
three primary participants, the symposium will be opened up to members 
of the
H-Ideas community.

Together with our distinguished participants, the members of the H-Ideas
editorial team look forward to the active participation of the general 
public
and the academic community at-large. Following electronic publication of the
papers and the first round of responses, H-Ideas subscribers will have the
opportunity to participate in what we hope will be a healthy 
intellectual debate
on the current state of cultural criticism. In order to participate, you 
must
register as a participant in the forum.

Please follow the four steps listed below:

* Visit http://www.h-net.org/~ideas/forum/ and click on the button titled
"Register".
* You will be asked to agree to the "Registration Agreement Terms".
* The next screen will ask you to enter a username, password and some
information about yourself. Please try and fill in at least your "Location",
"Occupation" and "Interests".
* Click on "Submit" at the bottom of the page and your registration is 
complete.

Panel Participants
George Cotkin: Professor of History at California State University, San Luis
Obispo and author of most recently, Existential America (Johns Hopkins, 
2002).

Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn: Professor of History, Maxwell School of Syracuse
University and author of most recently, Race Experts: How Racial Etiquette,
Sensitivity Training, and New Age Therapy Hijacked the Civil Rights 
Revolution
(W. W. Norton and Co., 2001) and a forthcoming book on post-WWII cultural
critics.

David Steigerwald: Associate Professor of History at Ohio State University
and author most recently of Culture's Vanities: The Paradox of Cultural
Diversity in a Globalized World (Rowman and Littlefield, 2004).

The H-Ideas Editorial Team

Costica Bradatan, Miami University
Harald E. Braun, University of Liverpool Stephen J. Burge, Hidden Lake
Academy Raymond J. Haberski, Marian College Neil Brody Miller, Southeast
Missouri State University