2019/2020 Academic Year: DEBT

Above is a painting of a 19th century Scottish funeral. During this time, many believed that eating a piece of bread or pastry from the deceased individual's face or chest absolved them of their sins as they passed into the afterlife. As the tradition evolved, Sin-eaters were people who got paid to absorb the sins of the recently deceased.

This year’s theme is "Debt". Programming for the 2019-2020 academic year is receiving additional support from a SUNY Conversations in the Disciplines Grant to explore the relations between Care, Crisis, Climate, and Debt. To open our conversation, Margaret Atwood's 2008 contribution to the Massey Lectures Payback:Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth is this year's common read. Atwood describes debt from its ancient origins to it contemporary form as a central metaphor in religion, literature, and as a structural force in modern human societies. This interdisciplinary examination of Debt moves us beyond the narrow constraints of finance and money management to think about Debt as a human construct that can be utilized to manufacture crisis or cultivate care. We must all be thankful that the job of Sin-eater is a construct of redemption that has long been abandoned.

Inspired by Atwood's interdisciplinary and expansive view of Debt, we will be publishing a second Field Guide. Last year's Field Guide to Zombies and Surviving the Apocalypse featured recipes from our very own Chef James Webb, a number of interesting academic and popular culture articles, as well as art created by a number of graphic design students that were featured both online and in an exhibition in Old Main's Colloquium Room 220. This year we are excited to open Field Guide submissions to our featured Conversations in the Disciplines guests as well as Cortland faculty, staff, and students to contribute original works exploring Care, Crisis, Climate, and Debt. We plan to publish this collected works under the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity's book series with Palgrave-MacMillan.

View this year's calendar of events.

Care, Crisis, Climate, and Debt

An image from Javier and Juan Gallego's graphic novel, As if They had Never been, depicts the tragic death of immigrants in the Mediterranean Sea.

For the 2019-2020 academic year, the Cultural and Intellectual Climate Committee plans a year-long multi-disciplinary discussion focused on Debt. Debt is a concept that appears to be straightforward. However, as we become increasingly reliant on debt to finance everything from our education to daily household activity, questions about its efficacy and links to both financial and environmental crisis must be interrogated. This interrogation needs to come from not only the traditional economics and finance perspectives but also from an interdisciplinary collection of voices committed to telling a more complex story and starting a new discussion.  This new discourse must re-imagine credit relationships to overcome the challenges created by debt’s role in perpetuating vast inequality across socioeconomic categories as well as how to address the crises of climate change.  

For example, Javier and Juan Gallego's work above is a tribute to potentially a thousand immigrants who lost their life at sea and asks the question: "How is it possible that these people were non-existent?" How do we not know who was lost? What have we constructed socially to put so many lives in danger?  Atwood (2008) hypothesizes that without memory there cannot be debt, so by creating a memory for these lives, have we created an obligation?  If so, to whom? Further, who else is drowning in our society and how do we solve these problems? Reconciliation, forgiveness, or do we simply need more complex expressions debt?

This year's program promises to deliver a platform for building this new story. We look forward to discussions about criminal justice, and paying one's debt to society, reconciling our carbon debt through sequestration and sustainable farming, student loans and the possibility of forgiveness, as well as many other relevant topics. To submit an event, a Field Guide contribution, or volunteer to support this year's activities and programming please email  Benjamin Wilson.

We hope that you will join us in building the Field Guide, at scheduled events, and that you also engage in your courses and student activities through the common read.

A Field Guide to Debt: Care, Crisis and Climate

From Bored Panda's 64 Powerful Street Art Pieces That Tell the Uncomfortable Truth.

Introduction

At the end of Margaret Atwood's text she argues, "Like all our financial arrangements, and like all our rules of moral conduct—in fact, like language itself—notions about debt form part of the elaborate imaginative construct that is human society. What is true of each part of mental construct is also true of debt, in all its many variations: because it is a mental construct, how we think about it changes how it works."  This collection of writings calls for an alternative construct of how debt and more broadly promises to each other operate to sustain healthy and equitable societies and heal our planet.

Call for Chapters (PDF)

Fall 2019 Events

Thursday, February 6, 5 - 6:30 p.m. - Jacobus Lounge, Brockway Hall.
Dr. Maggie Dickinson from CUNY Guttman Community College will join us to discuss the growing food crisis, care, and the abandonment of America's food safety net. 

Wednesday, February 19, 12:30 p.m. - Jacobus Lounge, Brockway Hall.
Dr. Benjamin Wilson will present "The Green New Deal and the Promise of Full Employment."

Thursday, February 20, 5 - 6:30 p.m. - Room 105, Sperry Hall. 
Dr. Stephanie Kelton from Stony Brook University will be joining us to discuss Modern Monetary Theory and the policy proposals, including the Green New Deal, that this economic framework makes possible.

Tuesday, March 10, 5 - 6:30 p.m. - Jacobus Lounge, Brockway Hall.
Dr. David Fruend from University of Maryland will be joining us to discuss the history of discriminatory lending practices in the U.S. and its role in perpetuating intergenerational inequality.

Wednesday, March 11, 5 - 6:30 p.m. - Jacobus Lounge, Brockway Hall.
Dr. Joelle Leclaire from SUNY Buffalo State will be joining us to discuss macro-financial stability and household debt from the perspectives of American Post-Keynesian Economics, the Cambridge approach, and the Monetary Circuit School.

Thursday, March 12, 5 - 6:30 p.m. - Jacobus Lounge, Brockway Hall.
Dr. Scott Ferguson from University of South Florida will be joining us to discuss the politics of care and the aesthetics of money.

Thursday, April 9, 5 - 6:30 p.m. - Jacobus Lounge, Brockway Hall.
Dr. Jakob Feinig from Binghamton University will be joining us to discuss money creation from the perspective of popular knowledge and democratization as a means for delivering improved social outcomes.

The Cultural and Intellectual Climate Committee (CICC) is an all-campus committee of faculty and staff appointed by the Provost. Each year members of the Committee choose a theme to frame a year-long series of lectures, discussions, film screenings, and art exhibitions. This theme is meant to promote cultural life on campus and help the campus and Cortland community engage in discussions connected to issues relevant to today's world.

If you are a member of SUNY Cortland's faculty or staff and would like to participate in the CICC, please contact Benjamin Wilson, the committee's chair. If you are member of the student body or the Cortland community and have a suggestion for a speaker or event, please feel free to contact us as well.

2020/2021 Academic Year: Care

"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it, we go nowhere." Carl Sagan

Each year, the Cultural and Intellectual Climate Committee selects a different intellectual theme for the academic year. However, given the significant changes created by our efforts to care for one another and to stop the spread of COVID-19, we have decided to continue with last year's theme of Care, Crisis, Climate, and Debt with a special emphasis on Care.

We are all aware of the hardship and loss that the global coronavirus pandemic is creating. Our hearts go out to all of those who have lost loved ones and who have otherwise been touched by this disease. We are also aware of the myriad economic and environmental crises that are spreading across our communities as fast as the fires are burning in the Western United States. In these times of extreme crisis, we issue a rallying call to support one another and for sharing modes of self-care as well as how we are caring for others. Wearing our masks, practicing social distancing, adopting proper hygiene, and following public health protocols are all acts of care that helps us toward a future without COVID-19 negatively impacting our lives. But this is not all we are doing. We are sacrificing so much more for each other and, at the same time, giving our time and energy to do the very best we can in these difficult times. 

So in the spirit of imagination provided by Carl Sagan, let us begin to describe a world that never was, a world that is  recovering and healing from the many illnesses we are enduring, including but not limited to COVID-19. Signs of recovery are everywhere. Acts of selflessness and beauty are ever present, and we want to create a space for all to share here on this website. So while we are not going to be able to gather for discussions, films, readings, and the other great programming, we are accustomed to enjoying, we invite everyone to participate in sharing images, essays, poetry, film and television, music, art, outdoor activities, recipes, and more (see link below). What is helping you get from one day to the next? What helps you imagine a better tomorrow? We want to collect and share these materials to help care for one another during this challenging year.

Photo Wilco Facebook

A Culture of Care: Sharing and Caring During the Pandemic

To get the ball rolling, I’d like to share a personal moment of emotional health provided by music. “In this time of angst, Jeff Tweedy has been holding tight to family,” says Bob Boilen of NPR’s All Songs Considered. From the start of the pandemic, the Tweedy family has been writing songs and making music, resulting in an album called Love is the King with a title track “that is filled with gratitude in this time of angst.” Like the Tweedys, I have spent a great deal of time holding close to family, as I’m sure many of you have as well, and even though the Wilson family does not have a new album coming out, the feeling of gratitude for life holds true. Boilen reflects, “As hard as life is these days, I’m envious of the world they share together.” While I appreciate his sentiment, let’s not be envious. Let us begin to share a new world for which we can all be grateful for together.  

-Dr. Benjamin C. Wilson, Chair, Cultural and Intellectual Climate Committee and Associate Professor of Economics

A Culture of Care Collection

To build our collection, please visit our submission form for A Culture of Care. This form includes spaces to enter links, write your own text, and upload files of materials that have helped you feel grateful during these times of angst, and to see a new world.

A note on the form: you do not need to provide answers to all the questions. You can simply add one response and hit submit at the bottom of the page.

Check out a summary of recent submissions! We look forward to curating and sharing responses on the website soon!

A Cortland Story Corps

Many of you may be familiar with NPR's Story Corps: Sharing and preserving the stories of our lives. We would like to build a similar archive. Please use the link below to create a short interview or monologue describing a time of care. When did someone pick you up when you were down. Did you see someone go above and beyond? Use this media to give someone thanks and to recognize the Care we are all extending to make our lives a little better.

Cortland Story Corps Videos

Contact: cicc@cortland.edu