8th Annual McGill University Graduate Student Symposium on Language and
Literature
"Representing the Border"
March 23 & 24, 2002
Montreal, Quebec
The Academic Personae and What Makes a Good Looking Thinker
Papers are being solicited for a panel on the academic personae and
media. In recent years, academics and "authorities" have been turning up
all over the media to give their opinions on current events and to expand
upon subjects using their expertise or their theories. What happens to
the academic when he/she crosses from the campus to the realm of the mass
media? We might take as an example ways in which the value of Marshall
McLuhan's criticism is judged and presented in light of how he projected
himself as the guru of the televisual age. How did Ezra Pound's academic
reputation/ personae suffer after he was accused of treason for making
racist and inflammatory broadcasts on Italian radio. It seems that the
academic personae, or the way in which the academic portrays him/herself
through public media, can have a dramatic impact on how he/she is
accepted in the academy and the public. This panel wishes to explore the
borders between the personae of a thinker in the academy and the personae
created by or for the media.
One page proposals, which are by no means limited to the following
suggested topics, are requested:
- What makes up the border between the academic and the public? Who makes
it?
- How is the work of an academic affected by appearances on television/
radio/ film, etc.?
- What is the difference between the private academic and the popular
academic
- What is the role of the university in marketing the academic?
- Who creates the personae? Is there a template?
- Is there a difference in the language of a popular academic and a
private one?
- Where or how does the academic learn how to project themselves in
public? Are we training new academics to function in the world of popular
media? If so, what are the ramifications on the university? If not, what
happens to the public's perception of the academic?
- Is the role of the public academic largely decorative, a border around
more pressing concerns?
Abstracts are due January 31st. Please forward them to:
dnwright@sympatico.ca
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