March 31, 2008
Platform for Pedagogy
Platform for Pedagogy is a weekly e-mail newsletter listing an interdisciplinary mix of lectures in New York City. According to its website:
Platform for Pedagogy is an initiative to advance a culture of cross-disciplinary public lecture attendance and to develop the lecture as practice. We deal exclusively with public lectures. The determinate characteristic of the public lecture is form: the geographically bracketed transmission of knowledge by a privileged individual or group of individuals to an unsolicited public of mixed backgrounds and experiences. Donald M. Scott has written on the birth of the public lecture in mid-nineteenth century America as a form of supplementary instruction distinct from the sermon, speech or oration—and yet borrowing formally from all three—in that the lecture is mandated and shaped by the public's desire for a certain knowledge. These public lecture attendees sought to expand the trajectory of education typically confined to their formal or professional training by accessing these platforms for pedagogy.
For two years I have maintained an elaborate, iCal-based calendar of lectures, panels, symposia, screenings, and performances by artists and writers. This seems similar in spirit, and I hope that it proves a successful venture.