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Roth on Wesleyan

modern and postmodern

Semester Underway

January 28, 2018January 28, 2018 by Michael S. Roth '78

I sent this message to the campus a few days ago. My class, The Modern and the PostModern, begins tomorrow….so for me it seems we are just getting underway. I’ve been teaching versions of this course since the 1980s, and around 2000 I thought I’d retire it. But postmodernism, often a bogeyman for one group or another, is back in the news — mostly in relation to President Trump. I’ll share these  articles from the New York Times and this video from the Wall Street Journal (start at 5 minutes), as recent examples, but we start with Rousseau and Kant.

Here’s the message that went out to campus:

After a long winter break, I am looking forward to the new semester. Like many faculty, I’ve spent many hours preparing for my upcoming classes, and I’ve tried to dig into some research, too. The teacher-scholar model is at the heart of our enterprise, and Wesleyan is making new tenure-track faculty hires to further strengthen the distinctive education we offer. We have already signed up additional faculty in departments and programs such as Government, Psychology, Music, Science in Society, and Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies.

Promoting civic engagement is part of our educational mission, and shortly we will be sharing a new civic action plan and asking for your views. Ours is an “Engaged University,” and here the Jewett Center for Community Partnerships plays a key role. On February 5, we welcome to campus the Center’s new director, Clifton Watson. On February 15, students, faculty, and staff have another opportunity to be engaged as we host Dr. Joi Lewis, the CEO and founder of Joi Unlimited Coaching and Consulting and the Orange Method, as the speaker at our annual event honoring the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. More information on the program will be forthcoming.

Wesleyan has set yet another record in admission applications: a total of 12,673! That more talented high school grads than ever want a Wesleyan experience is something about which we can all be proud, because it is our combined efforts that create that experience. Faculty do it through powerful teaching and research, staff do it through effective work on behalf of the university, and students do it through avid appetite for learning coupled with an exuberant, joyful building of community. 

Expressing support for the university also contributes – be it by talking to others about Wesleyan or by making a financial contribution. In this last regard, the news is also good. As 2018 begins, we have already raised $27 million towards our annual goal of $35.6 million! We use much of these funds to invest in the long-term future of the institution through endowments that support financial aid, academic programs, and campus learning.

The economic basis on which the Wesleyan experience depends is stronger than ever, though still not strong enough given our ambitions and needs. Of these, improving our facilities is especially important, and how best to do that is something we look forward to discussing with you. We have scheduled forums dedicated to facilities planning on February 6 during common time and on February 13 at 4:30 p.m., both in the Kerr Lecture Hall (Shanklin 107). These forums are open to all faculty, staff, and students, and we want your input.

All of this work, from faculty hires to civic engagement, from admissions and financial aid to facilities enhancement, is in keeping with the planning framework developed in Beyond 2020.

Someone said to me recently that young people have to be brave to pursue a liberal education these days – courageous in the context of environmental and political challenges, in the face of political polarization and economic competition. Yes, I thought, the students I know at Wesleyan are brave, and with the support of faculty, staff, and alumni, defy contemporary pessimism with boldness, rigor, and practical idealism. Let the new semester begin!

Categories UncategorizedTags Civic Engagement, modern and postmodern, postmodernism, Wesleyan University
Michael S. Roth

Michael S. Roth became Wesleyan University's 16th president on July 1, 2007.

We welcome comments from readers, but reserve the right not to publish certain comments, such as those that are anonymous or appear to be spam.

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Wesleyan SACLC 4 hours ago

Student-Athlete of Color Leadership Council: The Battle Is Worth It. 💯 Retweeted by Michael S Roth

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Michael S Roth 4 hours ago

Another new #CivicEngagement class @coursera from @wesleyan_u coursera.org/learn/take-act… @Wes_engage

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Michael S Roth 6 hours ago

Sun is coming up, really...

test Twitter Media - Sun is coming up, really... https://t.co/CBinLa18We
The profile image of mroth78
Michael S Roth 6 hours ago

RIP Mary Catherine Bateson 'Love Across Difference' - and life as a "desperate improvisation in which I was constantly trying to make something coherent from conflicting elements to fit rapidly changing settings" nytimes.com/2021/01/14/boo…

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Michael S Roth 6 hours ago

New @coursera class offered by @wesleyan_u coursera.org/learn/designin…

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Michael S Roth 6 hours ago

How Big is Your ‘Big Lie’? 1. Saying you won an election you lost? 2. Starting a war on a false pretext? 3. Claiming a pandemic is a hoax? What’s the standard of measurement?

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Michael S Roth 7 hours ago

Noble lie? twitter.com/DAMendelsohnNY…

However scary it may be, this is *such* a good Plato teaching moment. https://t.co/63nLdSoW4O

— Daniel Mendelsohn (@DAMendelsohnNYC) January 15, 2021
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Keeanga-Yamahtta T. 2 days ago

The real coup twitter.com/AriBerman/stat… Retweeted by Michael S Roth

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Michael S Roth 1 day ago

Read ⁦@parul_sehgal⁩ on judgment, Saunders &Chekhov: “Saunders writes that the story seems to ask us to sit in judgment of the character, to ask, “Is this trait of hers good or bad?” Chekhov, he tells us, answers: “Yes.” via ⁦@nytimesbooks⁩ nytimes.com/2021/01/12/boo…

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Michael S Roth 1 day ago

Read ⁦@jenszalai⁩ on use & abuse of Orwell ‘s “1984” “the novel itself isn’t so much a treatise on free speech absolutism as it is a warning about the degradation of language and the potency of lethal propaganda.” ⁦@nytimesbooks⁩ nytimes.com/2021/01/13/boo…

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Michael S Roth 2 days ago

So pleased to see this @wesleyan_u students getting their work out! twitter.com/wesleyan_u/sta…

As a result of an assignment from Professor Fred Cohan's course, Global Change and Infectious Disease, more than 25 students have had their work published in newspapers across the US – many citing the University’s COVID-19 safety protocols.https://t.co/Msxzk3XkA2

— Wesleyan University (@wesleyan_u) January 13, 2021
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Michael S Roth 2 days ago

Dayenu twitter.com/aedwardslevy/s…

in most other presidencies we do not impeach even once

why, in this presidency, do we impeach twice

— Ariel Edwards-Levy (@aedwardslevy) January 13, 2021
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Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins 2 days ago

Extremist movements in 20th century Europe are often viewed in ideological terms. In the US they have been associated with religious extremism. Fascism as a category of analysis in the US might be debatable, but cultish, millenarian, religious sects are as American as apple pie. twitter.com/dbessner/statu… Retweeted by Michael S Roth

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Eddie S. Glaude Jr. 2 days ago

Where is the bottom? Retweeted by Michael S Roth

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Michael S Roth 2 days ago

Read insightful ⁦@AdamSerwer⁩ “The belief that only impoverished people engage in political violence—particularly right-wing political violence—is a misconception often cultivated by the very elites who benefit from that violence.” @theatlantic theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

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Michael S Roth 3 days ago

Re-posting from the early summer: "Higher Education Needs Antifascism Now" #IntellectualDiversity does not = total neutrality insidehighered.com/views/2020/06/…

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Michael S Roth 3 days ago

Read ⁦@risenc⁩ on “the modern American experience, from immigration &the promise of postwar abundance, through the tumult of the 1960s, to the search for meaning in a secular society —&finally, in the early 21st century, to the ravages of a pandemic” nytimes.com/2021/01/11/obi…

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Michael S Roth 4 days ago

Read @samuelmoyn "Cruz & Hawley have been making..outrageous moves..not because they learned them at Harvard &Yale, but because Harvard &Yale put them in a position to ascend to the heights of U.S. politics as it shifted so disturbingly over recent years" chronicle.com/article/the-fa…

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Wesleyan University 4 days ago

Wesleyan University Press authors Hafizah Geter, Rae Armantrout, and Honorée Fanonne Jeffers were recently longlisted for awards from PEN America. fal.cn/3cFkT Retweeted by Michael S Roth

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Michael S Roth 4 days ago

@jasonintrator @Notorious_RSG @dbessner Same claim the Communists made about the socialists in the 1930s Germany. SPD more dangerous than NSDAP

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