Who Is Slavoj Zizek? The MSSU Philosophy Club Invites You To Find Out

"The Elvis of Cultural Theory," "The Giant of Lubjana," "The culture-mulcher," "A Startling Critic of Great Daring," "The Most Formidably Brilliant Exponent of Psychoanlysis To Have Emerged From Europe in Some Decades" ---- all of these terms have been used to describe Slavoj Zizek, the Slovenian philosopher, psychoanalytic theorist, political activist, cultural critic, and all around global intellectual superstar. The author of over 26 books and countless articles on everything from the German philosophy to the films of Alfred Hitchcock to political correctness to the Global War on Terror, Zizek is setting the international intellectual world on its ear with his brilliant, daring, multifaceted theorizing. Now the subject of a feature documentary, Zizek!, to be relaeased on DVD in July, Zizek's profile has never been higher.

To find out more about this modern day gadfly, a man who has almost single-handedly made philosophy sexy again, join the MSSU philosophy club for Dr. Jeff Martinek's introductory talk on Zizek at Pizza by Stout on Thursday, April 27th at 7:00 pm.

For more details, see Patrick Beckett's blog entry here.

Honors Ski Trip---Winter Break '06

Sara Johnston has a detailed post on her blog about a proposed ski trip to Breckenridge, Colorado for Winter Break of 2006. Sara would love to get a group of Honors students together for this. Click here if you are interested in learning more

John Carr For Student Senate

Student Senate elections will be held on Monday, April 10th and Tuesday, April 11th in the Student Activities Office by the Lions Den in Billingsly Hall. We urge every student to vote and we ask Honors students to consider the candidacy of one of our own.

Honors Freshman (and Biology major) John Carr is already becoming a bit of a legend around here based on the sheer number of credit hours he's taking (23!). Now he's looking for a new challenge---MSSU Student Senate.

Read John's blog post on the elections here.

Caleb Gallemore Accepted to Ohio State Grad Program

Kudos to Senior International Studies Major Caleb Gallemore, who has just accepted an offer to attend graduate school at The Ohio State University. Caleb intends to pursue a Ph.D in International Studies.

Honors Students Take Top Spots In MoSo Talent Show

Sarah Wallace, Junior Spanish and Secondary Ed Major took first place for the individual competition with her song "Original Masterpiece." Jim Spena, Sophomore General Business Major, and Jessica Selby, Sophomore Public Relations Major, took first place in the group competition for their duet "The Prayer."

Congratulations guys!

iPod, Therefore I Am.

On a recent trip to the campus library I encountered another example of a growing trend at MSSU: students walking around in public, plugged into their iPods, loudly singing or rapping along with the lyrics they are apparently listening to.

It's a strange phenomenon to experience from the outside, and can be quite disturbing until you notice the headphones. This is similar to the experience of being in the same general area as a person having a cell phone conversation on a hands-free set. In both cases, I initially experience a sense of disorientation: public space is not supposed to operate this way, with people carrying on loud conversations with unknown interlocutors or singing Karoke with backup bands that are silent (to us anyway). It could be argued, in fact, that such acts destroy public space, and substitute a cacaphony of competing private spaces, each trying to drown the other out.

If you haven't guessed by now, I find this new trend depressing and disturbing. As much as I love my personal MP3 player and can relate to the joy of blasting my own tunes on the car stereo loud enough to let the world know my tastes, I feel acutely aware of how my presence in public space affects others. I cannot keep my headphones on, for instance, if there is another person nearby who may need or expect my attention. Even if I can actually hear the other person and take part in a conversation (because the sound is low), there is something offputting about the headphones----a barrier to the other---that I am conscious of.

Am I a member of the last generation to feel a sense of melancholy ambivalence to the "privatization" of public space by these new technologies? Will we come to accept as entirely normal public spaces full of people cut off from one another, indifferent and even hostile to how their presence (talking, singing, rapping, etc.) affects others?

Are institutions like MSSU encouraging this kind of thinking when we promote the wonders of technology (like distance learning) which allows everyone to have their own privately-tailored personal educational experience? Is this creating the expectation that wrapped in our technological cocoons, each of us has a right to our own personally-tailored reality, with little regard to how this might affect others around us?

I wonder if others have thought about this---and whether they share my concerns.

Journalism, Science, Academic Power, and Ethics

Interested in the white-hot controversy surrounding the University of Texas professor who has been accused of advocating genocide using the ebola virus? The professor claims he said no such thing and is the target of a vicious smear campaign by enemies of science who have grossly distorted his words and his position on global pandemics.

Nate Billings has weighed in on the issue and I have responded. We're both eager to include others in this conversation, which touches on such hot-botton issues as journalistic ethics and the abuse of academic power.