I am currently in a faculty seminar at my university addressing the public intellectual. One aspect of academics, scholars, and educators assuming the role of public intellectual that now confronts us is how the New Media (blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, LinkedIn, etc.) has and will reshape the role of public intellectuals, especially in the education reform debate.

Even farther at the margins, I think, of that new frontier is the role of graphic journalism and graphic scholarship. Consider some of the powerful examples of both here:

• At Spin, Weave, and Cut, Nick Sousanis shares his experience with a graphic dissertation.
• The Ladydrawers combine graphic journalism and gender scholarship in their work. There work is often featured at Truthout. See also the work of Anne Elizabeth Moore.
• Dan Archer and Adam Bessie produced a series of graphic journalism pieces addressing disaster capitalism and the corrosive effects of education reform, also featured at Truthout: The Disaster Capitalism Curriculum: The High Price of Education Reform (Episode I), Murky Waters: The Education Debate in New Orleans, and The Finnish Alternative: Reclaiming Public Education From Corporate Reform. See also Arthur King and Bessie’s Automated Teaching Machine: A Graphic Introduction to the End of Human Teachers.