Discussion

Anti-Intellectualism:  A Short List of Possible Topics

This list is not meant to be inclusive, and students are not required to select topics from this list.

I include it here only as a sampling of potential topics intended to inspire your own creative thinking

about how anti-intellectualism might overlap with other topics of interest to you!

 

· Is all reading intellectual?

· Intellectualism/anti-intellectualism in adult cartoons

· The intellectual origins of the internet and how its applications have developed--is the internet fulfilling its intellectual promise?

· Anti-intellectual attitudes toward poetry and/or reading of poetry as an intellectual activity

· How information literacy relates to anti-intellectualism

· Intellectualism in the film industry

· The effects of state or federal education initiatives (standardized testing, curriculum requirements, etc.)

· How high school or college sports programs affect education

· How being a student athlete affects intellectualism and engagement with learning

· Intellectual comedy vs. anti-intellectual comedy

· How television or film represents schools, education, and educators (consider the tv shows Glee or Community or The Middle for example, or consider a film like The Blind Side, Remember the Titans, or Precious, or something similiar)

· How discussions of education cuts and debates about taxes and school funding as well as actual allocations to the schools affect education

· How populist democracy—consider the current election and the discourse of many contemporary politicians—affects current debates about education

· The effects of political correctness on college campuses

· The causes and/or effects of grade inflation

· technology's influence on attention span, expectations of entertainment and speed

· Changes in the ACT and SAT to accommodate new generations of college-bound students

· The phenomenon of “helicopter parents” or “lawnmower parents” and its effects on students and school curricula

· The effects of computers in the curriculum at a particular level—elementary, high school, college

· Recent trends in college curricula in your field of study

· The influence of iPads on childhood learning

· Anti-intellectualism in health and medicine—our attitudes toward and intellectual understanding of these topics

· Stereotypes of intellectuals on television or in film (like Ross’s character on Friends, for example, or Lisa on The Simpsons)

· Corporate advertising and an increasing corporate presence on high school and college campuses (including SDSU) – my pet peeve, scholastic book orders includes books that come with toys, the happy meal of books.

· How some forms of music contribute to intellectualism or anti-intellectualism

· The effects of social media or cell phones, text messaging, and/or email on discourse, especially among the young

· Anti-intellectualism in American politics

· Anti-intellectualism in American religion (especially among fundamentalist and evangelical groups) and its effects upon the broader culture

· How the cult of celebrity contributes to anti-intellectualism

· College marketing and recruitment efforts

· How social activities on college campuses or in communities affect the intellectual climate on those campuses or in those communities

· Reading and literacy rates among various segments of the population, especially among college students

· The relationship between the movie and book industries – do they mutually benefit each other? Do movies encourage reading? Are the book always more intellectual than the movies?

· How capitalism, generally, and habits of consumption, specifically, affect attitudes toward education or intellectual endeavor

· How devices like Kindle affect reading and the culture of the book