Engaged Philosophy and the Public Philosophy Network are partnering to present a special interview series that highlights the work of public philosophers who will be presenting at the 2019 PPN Conference Oct 17-19, 2019.
Adam Blazej is a graduate student in the Department of Philosophy at Columbia University. He coordinates Rethink, which facilitates—along with community partners— reciprocal, transformative, philosophical discussion with members of marginalized communities in the NYC area.
What aspects of your teaching do you think of as public philosophy? What is your role?
Thank you, first off, for inviting me to do this interview!
I help to coordinate Rethink, an outreach program based out of the Department of Philosophy at Columbia University, and most the public philosophy work I do pertains to that program. Rethink consists of a group of volunteers—mainly philosophy graduate students—who facilitate regular, philosophical discussions with people belonging to marginalized communities—mainly young people who are currently or formerly incarcerated, and people who are victims of domestic violence and other forms of gender-based violence. As a program coordinator, I am responsible for developing community partnerships, recruiting and coordinating teams of volunteers, and providing those volunteers with opportunities in which they can exchange experiences, knowledge, and best practices in facilitating philosophical discussions. As a facilitator with Rethink, I co-facilitate, including collecting and developing materials for discussions regularly occurring at various locations at which Rethink has community partnerships.
Give an example of a successful project.
I deeply value the community partnerships Rethink has developed, and, for me, our partnership with the Osborne Association is exemplary. Going on four years now, Rethink volunteers have facilitated a month-long series of philosophical discussions every few months with students in the Justice Community at Osborne. Besides having received positive responses from those students and the staff at Osborne, I am pleased with how the partnership has become based on a form of engagement that is, in many respects, reciprocal, transformational, and ongoing. Other Rethink volunteers and I routinely review vision, planning, and evaluation of our discussions with the students and staff at Osborne. Plus, we have managed to incorporate various means through which students and staff at Osborne as can become co-planners, co-creators, and co-educators in our discussions.
What benefits does your public philosophical pedagogy offer to students? What benefits does it offer wider communities?
One benefit that I did not expect, but that has been consistently affirmed and remarked upon by participants, is that of a gaining a better understanding of one’s peers. Several participants have expressed appreciation for having learnt more, or different things, about one another as a result of these discussions. This is somewhat surprising, given that the groups we work with usually develop a strong community prior to, and independently of, our discussions. But I think that bond is supplemented by the opportunities that a series of philosophical discussions affords to express and be exposed to different ways of understanding one’s self, one’s relation to others, and one’s relation to the world.
What role does the PPN play in your philosophical work? What role do you play in the PPN?
My public philosophy work has benefitted from resources created and shared from past PPN conferences, though I have not yet had the pleasure of attending any of those conferences. I’m looking forward to changing that this October! In the meantime, I plan on building on work I’ve started this past year to connect different public philosophers in NYC, and I hope to be able to continue contributing to the flourishing of that community in the years to come.
What do you like about teaching this way?
For the most part, each series of Rethink discussions is co-facilitated by the same two or three volunteers for the duration of that series. I greatly appreciate this co-facilitation model for several reasons: volunteers can share responsibilities, which eases the time commitment (important for graduate student volunteers) and allows volunteers to be more attentive to the participants and staff of our community partners; volunteers can play with different discussion formats (for example, small breakout groups, modeled disagreement, or role play), which enlivens discussions; and volunteers can supplement each others’ strengths and weaknesses, creating increased opportunities to differentiate for participants needs or interests. But what I appreciate most about the co-facilitation model is the opportunities it affords to learn how to be a better facilitator, or at least how to be a different kind of facilitator. Co-facilitating discussions with one or two other people, which includes the preparation for and debriefings on those discussions, prompts me to reflect on my own pedagogical practices, habits, and values (including all the shortcomings therein), and to consider alternatives.
If someone wanted to do similar work at their own institution, what steps or resources would you recommend?
Can I add to an answer provided by Ian Olasov? In addition to establishing relationships with organizations that are already oriented around some broadly defined educational aims, I would recommend being open to learning from the staff at those organizations, to the point that you are actively seeking their input on what are the particular needs of the communities they serve, how they see your work as meeting those needs, and how you might continue to improve. This can provide you with their likely unique and informed perspective on nature, value, and shortcomings of the work you’re doing. This openness also contributes to establishing partnerships that are, I think, more authentic and democratic. The dedicated staff at Sanctuary for Families has been especially generous in sharing their expertise with Rethink volunteers in developing approaches that are appropriate for the social and emotional environments of the wonderful women with whom they work. For me, public philosophy is at its best when it seeks to inspire and reflectively engage in a collective attitude of openness that is akin to the intangible sense of possibility that a movement sparks.
How does your department or institution support your involvement in public philosophy? How would you like to see them support you?
Without a doubt, the broadest and most significant support I have received has come from the Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia. Last year, they awarded me a small grant to develop, co-facilitate, and report on a series of workshops with Allysa Lake (Fordham) and Malin Grahn-Wilder on the philosophy of hope with young women incarcerated at Rikers Island. Along with the Center for Contemporary Critical Thought, they also supported bringing together philosophers and other educators to discuss teaching philosophy in jails and prisons. But most importantly, and particularly with the help of Mia Ruyter, they have helped me collaborate with educators from disciplines outside of philosophy in developing and leading Rethink discussions.
The Philosophy Department at Columbia provides Rethink with space on the departmental website, as well as periodic financial support for inviting participants to campus for lunch and discussion. However, Rethink is currently an entirely volunteer-led and -run program, and I do not see it lasting without greater departmental support. I think this is unfortunate, not least because I think Rethink has provided not insignificant opportunities for dozens of philosophy graduate students to advance their careers, pedagogy, and philosophical thinking. That said, this belongs to a broader issue having to do with graduate students not receiving compensation for their departmental service work, a policy which varies among graduate programs.
EngagedPhilosophy readers: If you’d like to nominate yourself or someone else for an interview, email us at info@engagedphilosophy.com.
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