Great Minds Think Alike

By Jessica Sellin

This past Friday,  September 24^th,  new director for the Center for 21^st Century Studies, Professor Richard Grusin, gave an informal talk on the future of 21^st Century Studies, not just in the sense of a department on the UWM campus, but as a field of studies on a national and international scale.  Some of you may have been fortunate enough to take a course in which his earlier book Remediation: Understanding New Media was used, addressing themes of immediacy and hypermediacy.  Certainly our own generation places a greater and greater emphasis on immediacy, as seen in our affinity for virtual realism in the film (who didn’t see Avatar?) and video game industries (Halo anyone?).  His current book, Premediation: Affect and Mediality After 9/11, deals with another familiarity to us all, the implications of the media and social networking in our everyday lives as a focus of connectivity and reassurance.

What was most intriguing about Professor Grusin’s lecture was his call to arms of an almost renaissance-esque revival of the university.  In a world of specialization, we often get lost inside our own little worlds, allowing little room for cross-over and hybridization.  Sure, we have all had our moments of groaning over the GER requirements we faced as freshman (or in later years, for those who postponed the inevitable), and have rolled our eyes as professors insist we will one day see the importance of a “well-rounded education.”  Well, I myself as a senior now see the light, and am encouraged that my two years as a pre-med student will not be wasted on an arts degree.

One of Professor Grusin’s main encouragements came in the form of fostering active research among disciplines, focusing not just on the humanities, arts, and social sciences, but including biological, health, and environmental sciences, as well as business and information sciences.  After all, the “Renaissance man” himself, Leonardo da Vinci, dabbled in art, architecture, geology, aerodynamics, military science, and botany, to name a few.  His artistic skills proved effective for making military blueprints, and his botany and geology knowledge was reflected in his portrayal of nature in his artistic endeavors, so certainly cross-disciplinary research not only fosters new understanding of a new field, but also improves understanding of our own.

We ourselves cannot be prepared to enter a society in which the lines between disciplines are blurred if we are only educated within the rigid boundaries of our own scholarly pursuits.  Let’s face it, the workforce is a scary venture at the present time, regardless of your degree, and as someone soon entering into said uncertainty, I relish the thought of widening my options by widening my education.  Now, Professor  Grusin made clear his point that we need not stop our current studies in their tracks, but rather should take time away from said studies to foster connections to other disciplines and the community.  One way Professor Grusin proposes such connections take place is through the installment of physical locations where such scholarly, interdisciplinary narratives can take place beyond the Center’s home on the ninth floor of Curtin Hall, whether those be locations spread throughout the east side campus (such as in the newly purchased Columbia St. Mary’s building), or more distant locations such as the forthcoming Innovation Park in Wauwatosa–all in an attempt to “de-center the center.”

So, if any of this sounds appealing to you (and I’m betting it does), initiate conversations with fellow peers, professors, or even stop by the Center, and show your support for the cause.