Established in 2003, the CULTURAL STUDIES DIALOGUE (CSD) is a public discussion group that seeks to engage cutting edge scholarship that straddles multiple disciplines, especially those drawn from the Humanities. Every year the group selects a text to read and discuss over four meetings spread across two semesters. These texts are usually a mix of rich (and sometimes unfamiliar) theory, practical engagement, contemporary relevance, and speak to a broad audience. Ever since its inception, the CSD has generated many fruitful seasons of collegial discussion, disagreement, and debate. Students, employees of the College, and friends from beyond are welcome to attend the discussions. For more information, or if you wish to be placed on the CSD mailing list, please contact Dr. Timothy Schoettle at tschoett@messiah.edu Ext 2411, Box 3048.
READING YEAR & TEXT
2009-2010. Paul de Man, The Resistance to Theory (Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press, 1986)
2008-2009. Judith Butler, Precarious Life: The Power of Mourning and Violence (London: Verso, 2004)
2007-2008 Elizabeth A. Clark, History, Theory, Text: Historians and the Linguistic Turn (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press 2004)
2006-2007 Edward Said, Humanism and Democratic Criticism ( New York: Columbia University Press, 2004)
2005-2006 Slavoj Zizek, The Fragile Absolute—Or why is the Christian legacy worth fighting for ? ( London: Verso, 2000)
2004-2005 Terry Eagleton, After Theory ( New York: Basic Books, 2003)
2003-2004. Dipesh Chakrabarty, Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000)
MEETINGS
Two meetings are held every semester typically on Tuesdays or Thursdays during Chapel hour. However, participants are encouraged to come early and even stay on after the meeting to continue their conversations. Announcements will be sent out on COENET and to participants on the mailing list.
SUGGESTED CRITERIA FOR SELECTING TEXTS
1. As a group we seek to grapple with texts that speak to us from diverse disciplines, subject positions, and complex themes. The CSD is interested in the work of pure theory, its practitioners, and those in-between. We seek to balance this with being intentionally hospitable to all from our community—administrative staff, students, and faculty, and even members from outside our community. What we are trying to do here is to engage intellectual landscapes, past or present, that speak to us.
2. Ideally, the group can be well served by texts that are about 100-150 pages in length, though this is not an absolute rule. Shorter texts that are theoretical, insightful, and engaging generate fruitful discussions.
3. Participants, may at any time propose the names of texts (classic or contemporary) along with brief descriptions to the coordinator. The texts for the following reading year are then ultimately announced in the final meeting in Spring. Books are selected by the coordinator on the basis of a simple majority.
4. The CSD meets four times in an academic year—twice in Fall, and twice in Spring. Meeting times and dates are decided by the Office of Faculty Development and then included in the Opportunities Calendar.