Todd May: Friendship as Resistance

Professor Todd May

On January 10th, as part of the Public Culture Series of Educational Studies, Professor Todd May of Clemson University, South Carolina gave a free lecture, “Friendship as Resistance: A struggle against consumerism and entrepreneurship in neoliberal times”.

Congratulations on a very successful genuinely public intellectual event, which generated a good deal of dialog and thought, bringing out students, faculty and most importantly, living up to what our Department is all about, opening space for discussion of matters crucial to education and social justice. I wish to commend Shayna Plaut and Jeannie Kerr for their thoughtful provocations of Todd May’s talk. I also thank Dr. Claudia Ruitenberg for her tireless efforts to bring Todd here. Thanks as well go to Kjell Rubenson, Nora Timmerman & Carrie Hunter, and Roweena Bacchus of the Public Culture Committee, The Democracy Cluster, Policy Studies Cluster, & SCPE and Don for hosting the wine & cheese. I counted some 45 in our audience from across the campus.

Please provide feedback to the Public Culture Committee about this event, its format and ways to increase our dialog and community. Also, see the Jan.–March 2011 lineup of speakers in the Series on our website announcing future talks in the Public Culture Series.

Professor Leslie G. Roman, Chair, Public Culture Committee