The art of the seminar and the power of small things

Abstract

ABSTRACT Jeffrey Goldfarb’s intellectual engagement in the public sphere is rooted in his commitment to the seminar as a unique form of pedagogy, social interaction, and democratic deliberation. His skill around a table is, however, not only a craft that has been honed in the classroom; Goldfarb’s art of the seminar has also travelled geographically and virtually onto various platforms. His commitment to dialogue continues to serve as a way in which individuals can engage with one another across differences. From his early fascination with conversations around kitchen tables in communist Poland to the Democracy and Diversity Summer Schools that he organised with colleagues while teaching at the New School, from the virtual forums of Deliberately Considered, Public Seminar and The Democracy Seminar to his current professorship at the American University of Afghanistan, Goldfarb invites faculty and students to engage with one another to think critically about the pressing problems of our increasingly fractured world.