ABSTRACT
The role of the public intellectual has become an arcane and elusive option for academic scholar. Constant immersion in academic seminars and journals to the exclusion of practitioner seminars, meetings, and non-scholarly writing has served to weaken literacy in the languages of the public, economic, and political domains. Attempts at public or political engagement are overlooked or even discouraged as an “impractical” waste of time. Ultimately, why an academic makes the choice to engage in public or political discourse is a personal decision, motivated by his or her own circumstances, values, and beliefs, and driven by his or her own goals. A junior faculty member who has performed public or political engagement should be evaluated by peers who have conducted the type of work, as well as those who are more focused on scholarly merit. Engagement and collaboration with the public can create new knowledge.
