Submitted by Cathy Davidson on Apr 30, 2009, 08:15 AM
Priscilla Wald, my friend and colleague, is the epitome of the public intellectual who translates her specialized research into a form that can make a difference far beyond the walls of academe as well as within it. Her most recent book is Contagious (published by Duke University Press) and shows how narratives of epidemics and global pandemics obscure the real cause of such health problems: global poverty. The idea that disease can be spread should remind us that we are all one touch away not from "carriers" but from the impoverished who live blocks away, who inhabit our buildings at night when we go home (and make them clean and bright), who do not have health insurance nor adequate health care. Instead, we focus on the spread of disease and right wing pundits use pandemics as a way to scare up fear and hatred of the impoverished, not an awareness that we all share this globe together. Priscilla's op ed piece, reblogged here, makes these points eloquently.

Submitted by admin on Jul 28, 2008, 12:00 AM

Howard Rheingold discusses forum in his Social Media Classroom, a 2008 HASTAC/MacArthur Foundation Digital Media & Learning winner.