ABSTRACT
Missing from neoliberal market societies are those public spheres from public and higher education to the mainstream media and digital screen culture where people can develop what might be called the civic imagination. Universities are losing their sense of public mission, just as leadership in higher education is being stripped of any viable democratic vision. Anti-public intellectuals now define the larger cultural landscape, all too willing to flaunt co-option and reap the rewards of venting insults at their assigned opponents while being reduced to the status of paid servants of powerful economic interests. The very notion of being an engaged public intellectual is neither foreign to nor a violation of what it means to be an academic scholar, but central to its very definition. Academics as public intellectuals can write for multiple audiences, expand those public spheres, especially the many sites opening up online, to address a range of important social issues.
