IDS 2455 Spring 2023 Kirby

This course examines the role of the public intellectual. The assignments will differ every term, but typically students read, discuss, and write about texts by such authors as George Orwell, Albert Camus, Susan Sontag, Camille Paglia, Greil Marcus, and Cornell West in order to: (1) encounter ideas to which they have not yet been exposed, (2) become aware of their own heightened ability to work with big ideas and communicate them, and (3) identify a road map for their own progress toward becoming a public intellectual.

We will read great books by authors old and new.