Political Poetry

I just spent a very nice lunch hour at the Center for American Progress listening to “political poets” read and discuss their work. As the promo for the event read,
Percy Shelley said that poetry, also known as critical reflections upon popular culture, was a touchstone and an influencing agent for understanding and advocating for current [...]

V.P. Qualities

I was up late with some friends last night engaging in the usual political banter and the question of the moment: who will — or rather who should — Obama pick to be his vice presidential running mate? What should be the criteria? After much deliberation, it seemed to us that the usual [...]

Beyond Broadcast: is this public media?

I’m at the Beyond Broadcast conference in Washington, DC, convened by American University’s Center for Social Media. It’s good to see a lot of old and new friends and the continuation of some projects I worked on when I was at the Center for Social Media. The question on the table is how new kinds [...]

Public Scholars and Intellectuals

Yesterday we wrapped up the first Beyond the Academy conference.  It was a terrific meeting of over 40 public scholars from across the country talking about how academics can make their work matter beyond the often narrow confines of academia.  Of course it is worthwhile to advance one’s own field, but this work need not [...]

Pause over this…

Not so long ago it looked like we were in for a vicious general election. The Republican candidates kept trying to one-up each other on how anti-immigrant and unwelcoming they could be. The Democrats were put on the defensive about not being vitriolic enough. It seemed like we were in for an [...]

Obama and Diplomacy

Now that he is the presumptive Democratic nominee, Barack Obama is going to face increasing criticism that he is naïve on foreign policy. His willingness to talk with “enemy states” defies the prevailing political realist view that nation-states should act to maximize their own power and self-interest. The doctrine of political realism makes no [...]