More on How I’m Thinking About Thinking

I’ve been thinking a lot about thinking this week.

My last class in undergrad is a class on Stuart Hall/intellectualism and the concept of trying to reflect on how we interpret the world. I always seek to reiterate how much my political commitment to scholarship and to study is rooted in my focus on addressing the material conditions of the world. It’s part of why I’m so clear on identifying more with being a scholar than an academic (even if that’s what I’m training for). The scholarship I engage with outside of the academy has in almost all circumstances been more rigorous than what comes through my classes. In the fortunate exceptions, I get the chance to engage with texts I enjoy, I do feel as though the conversations can at times miss the mark on situating themselves in the material reality we face.

When I think about how and why I think the way I do, I situate this blog at the beginning of how I came to the politics I have. I didn’t know how much of my development as an intellectual (in the very literal sense). Without the chance to weekly force myself to figure out where I was mentally and politically, I could not have been able to expand my horizons. I could not have been able to really develop as a person that cares about Africans to not head towards liberalism. I could not have been as disciplined about my study if I had been repeatedly…