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Rebekah Modrak and Jamie Vander Broek's Book Featured in MSU Public Philosophy Forum

April 8, 2022
Grid of 12 speakers in a zoom presentation

The Public Philosophy Journal (PPJ) at Michigan State University offered the Radical Humility: Forum on Wednesday, April 6 from 3 – 5pm. The event centered around a series of reflections about the book Radical Humility: Essays on Ordinary Acts (Belt Publishing 2021), a collection of articles that explores the salience of humility within our current social and cultural contexts and examines the ways in which humility can affect social and institutional change. The collection is edited by Stamps Professor Rebekah Modrak and the U‑M Librarian for Art & Design, Jamie Vander Broek. 

Inspired by the ideas found in Radical Humility, a group of artists, activists, and authors have come together to write responses to the book, published by the Public Philosophy Journal. The Radical Humility Forum is a space for the responders to have a dialogue about those pieces and the ideas on radical humility contained within. 

In addition to Modrak and Vander Broek, participants included:

  • Ruth Nicole Brown, the Inaugural Chairperson of the Department of African American and African Studies at Michigan State University. 
  • Nimot Ogunfemi is a doctoral student in Counseling Psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. 
  • Dr. Beronda Montgomery, a writer, science communicator and currently a Michigan State University Foundation Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics.
  • Todd Shaw has been on faculty since 2003 and has appointments both in UofSC’s Department of Political Science and the African American Studies Program.
  • Morgan Shipley (Ph.D.) is the Inaugural Foglio Endowed Chair of Spirituality and Associate Chair of Religious Studies at Michigan State University. 
  • Paulina Camacho Valencia is an artist, educator, and scholar. She is a member of the Chicago ACT Collective, a group of friends committed to building political artistic collaborations in multiple communities through artmaking. 
  • Gretel Van Wieren is Professor of Religious Studies and affiliated faculty in Philosophy at Michigan State University where her research and teaching explore the spiritual and moral dimensions of people’s relationships to land.

The Public Philosophy Journal seeks to engage in philosophy with the public by creating an inclusive space in which community voices are recognized, heard, and supported as vital to the practices of public philosophy.