Public scholarship in diaspora

Public scholarship in diaspora (in its iteration as writing for broad audiences) requires interdisciplinary versatility. The labor is intense: surveying unfolding cultural production (literature, documentary, photography, autobiography, among others) and then writing insightfully about it in a style that many of us have not been taught in graduate school––writing for the public.

Though most often this commitment is the product of genuine believing in the value of writing for the public––a labor of love and deep commitment to the public role of the academic––it may also connect with the mandate scholars face in professorships endowed by community monies.

Senior faculty i believe should be making the case to administrators and faculty for recognizing this demanding intellectual labor in promotion cases of assistant professors.