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Forum Encourages Faculty to Take Scholarship Public

public scholars forum

Veteran journalist Jim Naughton (pictured) had a message for Duke faculty members Thursday: Engage the public on important issues or surrender the debate to those who argue from emotion and unproven dogma.

"The reality-based community is not winning," said Naughton, who has worked for The New York Times and The Washington Post.  "There is a vast, jousting marketplace of ideas out there, and if we're not in it, the other side wins."

Naughton and Duke alumna and communications consultant Rebecca Wilson spoke to more than 30 Duke faculty members Thursday at a two-hour forum on "Critical Thinking in the Public Square."

Sponsored by the Faculty Write Program of the Thompson Writing Program in collaboration with Duke's Forum for Scholars and Publics and Duke Libraries, the session was the first of two this week designed to encourage faculty to communicate their research and views to a wider public and to provide suggestions about how to achieve that.  On Friday, Naughton and Wilson will discuss the use of social media in connecting faculty scholarship to the public, at 10 a.m. in 011 Old Chemistry Bldg.

Naughton noted that public scholarship "is a dirty word in some corners," but said there was a growing expectation that university scholarship should serve society as it grapples with large, complex issues.

Wilson said public scholarship extends faculty members' reach outside the classroom. "To be able to think about public scholarship is to think about a larger audience and why your scholarship matters in the world," Wilson said.

Photo by Jon Gardiner/Duke University Photography