The faculty retreat at Black Mountain, NC was an informative and exhilarating two days of presentations, exchanges, and casual conversation about matters of utmost importance to Furman’s future. I am writing with my thoughts on the presentation about “patriotism.” The talk about the values of "patriotism" reflected so much of what my graduate school training aimed to challenge and much of what I am trying to work against in the classroom and elsewhere.
The Samuel Huntington-like presentation erased historical realities about age-old trade, borrowing, syncretism, integration in favor of easily accessible and seemingly logical dichotomies like West / non-West, and more problematically... us / them. Perhaps because Nussbaum used Rabindranath Tagore's novel "Home and the World"1 and makes parallels between nationalism and identity politics, these issues are especially salient to me as both teacher, researcher, and citizen of the world. In light of Furman's curricular considerations, my concerns are more pressing indeed. Biblical metaphors and multiple references (like Paul's or Christ's "words") furthered my concern for Christian hegemony at an institution of liberal learning and troubling, uncritical assumptions about morality / the individual / modernity / freedom / justice being owned by and solely under the auspices of the "West". As indicated by others in the break-out sessions, the substance of the talk reified Western triumphalism despite its attempts to do differently. The presentation appeared to me as a neo-Imperialist, neo-Orientalist version of something that has been disbanded and refuted at least a decade or two ago at comparable institutions. Indeed, Mary Ann Calo told me that although Colgate University has not quite figured out how to handle debates and controversies about their "Western Traditions" and "non-Western" core divisions, the conversations are constantly taking place -- all the time! Yes, the talk certainly sparked conversations in our break-out session, but I wonder if they were really the most useful ones to have. Far more nuanced ones were overshadowed.
Finally, I will punctuate my comments with a statement about my deep concern for a philosophy of education that sees students as flock and professors as shepherds. I request that the Committee considers the failure of liberal education if the intention is to lead our students to the predetermined pasture. As mentioned by someone in my break-out session... it's good if a sheep gets a little lost, a little scared, gains some skills on its own, and has something to offer to the other sheep. Andrew Abbott's article speaks to this much more eloquently than I could possibly do.
1 Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was a Nobel
laureate for literature (1913) and was one of modern India's poets and
the composer of independent India’s national anthem.