Propose a Campus Theme
Next Year's Campus Theme
The Campus Theme for 2009-2010 is "The Urban and the Rural." The theme coordinators are Professor Steven Gerencser (Political Science) and Senior Lecturer Nancy Botkin (English).
The urban versus the rural, the center versus the periphery, Wall Street versus Main Street, red state versus blue state, capital versus province, small town versus big city, the elite versus the folk, town versus gown, the cosmopolitan versus the bucolic, the sophisticated versus the simple. These geographical and cultural conflicts have become commonplace ways of dividing polities, economies, and societies. Although we find these conflicts in America today, some of them are rooted in earlier disputes, such as the conflict between town and country in eighteenth-century England; and similar clashes appear over the globe and throughout history. One recent example could be seen in the United States political campaign of 2008, with its clash over the definition of American values and the people who supposedly embody them: where is the real America, and is its future best represented by small town life and "Joe the Plumber" or is it better reflected in urban and educational centers? While we may be familiar with this latest instance of this conflict, it is merely one more in a centuries-long debate about differing values, lives lived, and problems faced in urban areas as opposed to small towns and rural areas. The campus theme holds up these distinctions for consideration, reflecting on where they might be helpful and when they are distractions, or even disingenuous. This theme can be addressed in economics, culture, racial and ethnic challenges, demographics, health-care, education, the arts, religion, and even public policy regarding scientific research. Finally, the theme encourages consideration of how demographic and technological changes such as the growth of suburbs and exurbs, the Internet, globalization of the economy, and environmental damage challenge the meaning and value of these types of distinctions.
The Campus Theme for 2010-2011 is tentatively titled "The Meaning of Work." The coordinators are Professor Paul Mishler (Labor Studies) and Professor Dave Vollrath (Business and Economics).
