School of Media Studies

In response to the untimely suspension of all Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature programs at Stony Brook University, the final graduate conference from Stony Brook University will be an interdisciplinary event in partnership with Minorities and Philosophy (MAP) at The New School for Social Research with the aim to confront the limitations of their position as academics and conceive possibilities for moving beyond those limitations.

Many academics work on issues of social justice, and in this politically tumultuous moment, questions that want to be asked are: What is our social responsibility as academics? What does it mean to assume this responsibility? Have our methods been failing? Can we envision or enact other methods of social change? What social obligation does the privilege of our creativity, intellectualism, and insight require of us? The three main models of social change for humanities academics have generally been: publishing, teaching, and protest. While these modes yield diverse and important results, the political reality suggests that they are not enough. With this conference, the aim is to examine what makes these models more or less effective –inherently, historically, or in the contemporary moment. The conference also seek thinkers, scholars, and artists who are attempting to think beyond these methods.

Humanities scholarship itself tends to entail critique, which can make the work of scholars seem divisive rather than reparative. How might this relate to the apparent contempt toward us and our work from many outside the academy, from those in administration, from some of those outside our disciplines, or even amongst colleagues? How does this relate to our roles in facilitating social justice?