[The Montana Professor 20.1, Fall 2009 <http://mtprof.msun.edu>]
Linda Gillison
Classics
UM-Missoula
Hello, and welcome to The Montana Professor!
We open this issue with a contribution by Ron Perrin (Philosophy, Political Theory, UM-M, (Emeritus), who has been an important part of the life of our campus and community for decades and considers in these pages the Obama phenomenon. Ron reflects on his own early association with the civil rights movement and draws not only from that but from the intellectual tradition of the west to try to "explain" Obama. In explanation of the "where" and the "when" of Obama's election, Ron enlists what he considers a peculiar constellation of American public values and a peculiar time in history when founding principles seemed to be in danger. At this remove, one year into the Obama administration, we can evaluate not only the phenomenon itself but also Ron's analysis of it.
Dick Walton (Philosophy, UM-M, Emeritus), who is a member of this journal's editorial board, has contributed a characteristically (for Dick) straightforward and closely argued response to the recent Transferability Initiative of the Board of Regents and, more broadly, to the manner in which the Board has chosen to exercise its power in matters academic. Dick bumps against the critical question of authority versus power. If you would like to hear a former Regent's thoughts about the power and the authority of the Board, please consult TMP 14.2 (Spring 2004), where we published an interview with then Chairman of the Board of Regents, John Mercer. This matter of power and authority—of who/what motivates us to get things done and how—seems to me a matter well worth our reflective attention.
The essay by Karl Paulnack, pianist and director of the music division at the Boston Conservatory, is reprinted with the author's permission after its initial appearance in The Christian Science Monitor. A colleague drew our attention to this piece, a version of which was circulating broadly via cyberspace. Since we don't often address the arts in this journal and since they are sometimes given short shrift in matters of resource allocation and "centrality" discussions, we decided to print it for the perusal of our readers. Resident of Manhattan on September 11, 2001, Dr. Paulnack asked himself a question which the essay begins to address: "What place has a musician in this moment?" He supports his conclusion—"We need music to survive"—with several historical examples, but much, much more can be said and examples from a broader world can certainly be adduced. I hope that this essay will open a conversation about the role of the arts (broadly defined) in society and in education, and I look forward to contributions on this topic.
David Swanson, (Sociology, UC-Riverside) has offered us an excellent paper on a topic of perennial interest to our readership: the evaluation of courses and instructors. David broadens his focus beyond the "student evaluation" form to recommend a "Quality Assurance System" which would include students, faculty, alumni, and external measures of student "success" in a regular and systematic evaluation of an academic program. David's underlying assumption is that evaluation must be ongoing, comprehensive, integrated, research-based, and mission-focused. He proposes a system to include students' evaluation of the items which they are really able to evaluate (organization of presentations, punctuality of instructor, coherence, observation of posted office hours among them); instructors' evaluation of students on the same bases (completion of assignments, participation in class, ability in oral and written expression among them); alums' evaluations, more long-term and opinion-based responses (concerning technical and general skills acquired, scope of required courses, quality of instructional facilities, overall satisfaction in being a graduate of the program and the like). Paul Trout (English, MSU-Bozeman, Emeritus), Judith Fischer (Lewis Brandeis School of Law, University of Louisville), and Richard Gayle (Black Hills State University), have addressed this topic previously in these pages, and I hope that Swanson's latest contribution will usefully advance that conversation.
In the "Reviews" area, this issue throws a wide net—Shakespeare, a Black Founding Father, atheism and its delusions, and John Lennon.
Tobin Shearer (History; Director, African-American Studies Program, UM-M) reviews Freedom's Prophet. Bishop Richard Allen, the AME Church, and the Black Founding Fathers by Richard Newman. This new biography attempts to place the African Methodist Episcopal Church's founder into the political, societal, and cultural context which witnessed and midwifed the birth of our new country. The interesting and important subject of this biography may be little known today, but he was, say Shearer and Newman, "a prophetic leader of his generation" who helped to form the young nation in which he lived. The new biography sold out at a truly surprising rate when NYU published it and was, for several months, unavailable. We are fortunate that Tobin had a copy on his desk and was willing to review it for us.
Matt Paulson, a recent UM-M graduate in Philosophy and Classics who in the intervening time earned a M.Div. degree from Harvard and is now in the doctoral program in Theology at Berkeley, contributes to our journal by special invitation of our colleague Dick Walton. Matt reviews one of the latest in the recent wave of "new atheism" books, Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies by David Bentley Hart. Hart's discussions of early Christianity and its invention of a new "humanity," the "myth" of the Enlightenment, and other matters of faith and reason lead Matt to consideration of "the radical degree to which a society's ethical, cultural and philosophical vision is historically contingent—that is, not only malleable, but fragile as well." Not a bad pondering-point for us, perhaps, as we blunder our way into a future which we call "free" and "enlightened" and "rational."
Chris Knight (English, UM-M) reviews a very recent publication by Robert Pack, renowned poet and scholar and humanistic addition to our lives here at UM. Pack's book, Willing to Choose: Volition and Storytelling in Shakespeare's Major Plays, considers the ways in which Shakespeare's characters sometimes surprisingly utilize their freedom to choose rather than fall victim to some kind of "fate." According to Chris, Pack approaches this investigation as a humanist "inflected by the insights of a Charles Darwin and a Sigmund Freud"—to my mind, an interesting "critter." This critter, within a thin book of 200 pages, wrestles not only with Shakespeare but also with God, attempting to prod each of these shy giants (says our reviewer) out into the limelight. The elegant and thoughtful review is itself a work of art which honors both the book and its author.
John Lennon has a new biography by Philip Norman, John Lennon: The Life. Henry Gonshak (Liberal Arts, MT Tech-UM) reviews it with gusto, and fans of the subject or his band will find a lot to love in this volume. While the reviewer doesn't find much that is new in the book's 823 pages, he appreciates the lucid synthesis of all of the information about the well-studied subject. Henry reports a bit of myth-busting in the Norman biography: it turns out that Lennon's childhood was quite respectable and that a virtual chorus of adults stood around wanting to tend him—a far cry from the neglected life which Lennon often later created for himself. On a morally edifying note, Norman reminds us that those rough days and nights which the group spent in a Hamburg dive playing daily six- to eight-hour sets and living in a fetid backroom were just what Malcom Gladwell (Outliers: The Story of Success) recommends: apparently 10,000 hours' practice makes, if not perfect, at least successful. So work, work, and—as crotchety old Greek Hesiod advised his lazy brother—work harder!
I hope and trust that you will find this issue of The Montana Professor thought-provoking. We invite submissions in response to this issue's topics or on other ones. So far, no better hobby than the subjunctive has been offered to us at the "editorial offices." (Sad.) Please, tell us about a book, work of art, scientific or technological discovery which has changed the way you and your disciplinary colleagues do your work. Or tell us about a great teacher of your experience in the Montana University System. Or address some other topic—educational, political, cultural—of particular importance and interest to us in the professoriate. And, for heaven's sake, tell us about a hobby which is more exciting than the subjunctive!
We of the Editorial Board look forward to hearing from you! Have a great autumn!
[The Montana Professor 20.1, Fall 2009 <http://mtprof.msun.edu>]