“The purpose of a good education is to show you that there are three sides to a two-sided story.”

Stanley Fish is a literary theorist, legal scholar, author and public intellectual. He also currently serves on our advisory board at the Institute of Art and Ideas. He is particularly associated with pioneering reader-response criticism, the theory that the meaning of the text is created by the reader, rather than discovered. Rather than meaning being intrinsically held in the text, it is a product of the relationship between the reader and the text, and so is subject to change. In addition to his literary criticism, Stanley has been outspoken about the politics of universities, supporting safe spaces and criticizing political statements made by universities on matters outside of their expertise.

We welcome Stanley back to HowTheLightGetsIn, along with his quick thinking in the debates; when asked “if you were a drug, what would you be?”, he replied, “Well, I’d have to be … Cranberry sauce!”

"For brilliance and forcefulness in argumentation and for sheer boldness of mind and spirit, he has no match.” - Barbara Herrnstein Smith 

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