In a lively and thoughtful video interview, Syrian cartoonist Ali Farzat talks about drawing political cartoons, countering fear, and having his hands broken by militia attempting to intimidate him: “The cartoonist doesn’t only present events but also gives an opinion of them. It is about me, how I think and how I should present my…

A review in The Economist touches on one role of silence in government: “In 1988 General Augusto Pinochet organised a plebiscite that he was confident would grant him another eight years of absolute power. Ricardo Lagos, a hitherto little-known Socialist leader, used a live television programme—the first to feature opposition politicians since Pinochet’s military coup…

I thought I might share here the chalkboard notes from the first day of a new class on Literacy, Social Media, and Active Citizenship. here goes: Chalkboard Notes, Day 1 What do we know about literacy already as we start the course? Literacy involves reading, writing, and interpretation. Visual forms may be a partner or…

I had no television in my college apartment, so I walked a couple of blocks to Iowa City’s Hilltop Tavern to watch the national election results come in. Very early in the evening one of the networks “called” the presidential race, announcing, based on voter surveys and early eastern returns, that one candidate could already be projected…

“Shall we be destined to the days of eternity, on holy days as well as working days, to be shewing the relicks of learning, as monks do the relicks of their saints, without working one, one single miracle with them?” I found that question in the Commonplace Book of E. M. Forster today, and this…

From The Daily Beast, the furor over Limbaugh’s recent outbursts: Just as the technology-driven fragmentation of the landscape allowed partisan media to proliferate, a new technological development is providing the tools to take it down. Social media is making it possible to create a grassroots movement very quickly, voicing grievances very quickly and getting heard…

A quick Q & A with Jay Rosen from his Tumblr site: akakensmith asked: Your clearly show journalism disrupted by a changing world and journalists inventing very new versions of their work for a new time. Just as clearly, you and others show active citizenship changing, too, driving other changes and responding to change. But the…

In a brief book excerpt, the late and much lamented NYROB writer Tony Judt describes the role of the intellectual in times of concrete turmoil like our own: All this is hard for intellectuals, most of whom imagine themselves defending and advancing large abstractions. But I think the way to defend and advance large abstractions…

Happily retired, as far as I can tell, colleague Ellen Maher recently noted this: “I look back at some of my sociology syllabi and wonder whether some of the disciplinary sacred cows might not have been better left slaughtered in grad school.” We were chatting on Facebook at the time. My reply: “Ellen, I think…

At an event at the Natatorium today, four community leaders were honored as Trailblazers–individuals who broke ground for South Bend in areas such as desegregated employment and education. Mayor PeteButtigieg talked about how these individuals had helped change what had been unthinkable to something the absence of which would be unthinkable a single generation later. He went…