MCSI Spring 2012 Student Fellows Program

The Munroe Center for Social Inquiry at Pitzer College is now accepting applications for its Student Fellows program for spring 2012.

The Center’s theme for this spring is “Democracies (and Forces that Thwart and Pervert Them)." Within this broad rubric, we will examine the difficult work of making democratic politics and social relations happen.  In pursuing this inquiry, we examine forces that thwart and pervert democracy, particularly in our own time. These forces are complex and in some cases elusive.  They include, to start, the activities of corporations and militaries. However, they also include the ways political boundaries—between, for example, cities and incorporated suburbs, as well as between independent sovereign states—limit and often pre-empt democratic political organizing.  In examining these and other forces that thwart and pervert democracy in our historical moment, we will be particularly concerned with the uneven impact of professional-managerial “experts” on democratic political projects. The title of the series speaks of “democracies” in the plural, so as to emphasize that our concern is with the realization of democratic ideals in specific and changing social-historical contexts—not in some abstract or hypothetical world.  In this regard, our series pays particular attention to the uprisings and movements toward democracies in the Middle East over the last year, as well as to both changes in U.S. electoral politics and the emergence of the “Occupy” movements in the U.S. this fall. Finally, whereas a prominent strand of anti-democratic, or conservative, thought is always anxious about the possibility of there being “too much democracy,” this MCSI series unabashedly embraces the view that democracies are something to value and enhance, rather than tame and control.

MCSI brings to Pitzer College scholars, public intellectuals, and artists who are making singular contributions in their fields. The Student Fellows program is a unique opportunity to learn from and interact with these distinguished visitors, while pursuing a semester-long project within the broad area of the Center’s theme.

Student Fellows are selected for one semester. They attend all the public events of the Center during that semester, and they enroll in a weekly seminar (MCSI 195) with the MCSI Director, Daniel Segal, in which they discuss the Center’s public events and read relevant works. In addition, each Student Fellow plans and completes a project for the seminar—in most cases, a research paper—related to the Center’s theme for the semester. Some funding will be available to support the research and projects of the MCSI Student Fellows.

In the spring of 2012, the seminar will meet on Tuesdays from 1:15 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. The Center’s public events will began at 4:15 p.m. and end around 5:45 p.m., also on Tuesdays. There will be roughly 10 such public events in the spring of 2012. During weeks when no public event is planned, Student Fellows will meet with the Academic Director to discuss their progress on their projects.

To be eligible to be a Student Fellow, you must be a student in good standing at the Claremont Colleges. There will be up to 18 Student Fellows, with 12 spaces reserved for Pitzer students. 

To apply, complete the Student Fellows Application. All materials should be submitted by email to mcsi@pitzer.edu.
Click here for the Student Fellow Application. To submit your application, save this form to your computer, fill it out, and submit it by email to mcsi@pitzer.edu .

Please note: to insure full consideration, submit all applications by Wednesday, November 30th, 2011 by 5:00 p.m. (Pacific Time).

If you have any questions, please email us at mcsi@pitzer.edu.

— Daniel Segal, Director, Center for Social Inquiry at Pitzer College