On Public Intellectual Work

From: "Going Public" by Peter Mortensen.  College Composition and Communication, Vol. 50, No. 2 (Dec., 1998), pp. 182-205

Henry Giroux underscores the importance of this mission:

Public intellectuals...need to define higher education as a public resource vital to the moral life of the nation and open to working people and commu- nities that are often viewed as marginal to such institutions and their diverse resources of knowledge and skills. (250) 

But we need to be careful here. If composition teacher-researchers are to stand as public intellectuals, they may indeed wish to speak to the vitality of literacy for the "moral life of the nation," but they must also speak to the ethical concerns of the local-the community, the commonwealth, the region...

Should every composition teacher-researcher feel compelled to write as a public intellectual for popular audiences? Clearly not. Catharine Stimpson cautions that "not everyone can be a public intellectual" because "it demands a particular set of talents" that not all academics have ("Public Du- ties" 101). Still, Stimpson reminds us, "all academic professionals have public duties" (101). In composition, we can discharge these duties by writ- ing for the communities we live in, communities likely much larger and more complex than the institutional ones in which we work... we might provide background information and testimony for lawmakers considering legislation relevant to our professional concerns. We might also write reports for school districts or state government agencies that are considering questions germane to our field (see Mortensen, Remediation). The list could go on...