Project Wake

Wake Forest has a long tradition of engaging in a summer academic project on an issue of intellectual and social importance. The tradition includes setting aside time during New Deac Week for students to engage with a faculty or staff member on this issue. It is a favorite New Deac Week activity. For 2021, the Project Wake theme is “Re-”

“Re-,” as a prefix, is multifaceted. Some words indicate a move backwards, a return to the “way things were before,” or even a lessening or diminishment. Others evoke a meaning closer to “again,” as in repetition or replication or reiteration. Alternatively, “Re-” can signal undoing, correction, or improvement. Finally, it can signal process and progress. This will be a year in which all of the possibilities of “Re-” are likely to have resonance for those who are returning to Wake Forest, and those who are entering its gates for the first time. Some aspects of traditional ways of knowing and being will restore or rejuvenate us, and others will be reimagined. “Re-” might signal a culling or selection process, or a pruning- -keeping what still has potential and life, perhaps re-purposing what has outlived its utility, and discarding what is no longer productive. As a participant in Project Wake 2021, you will join your peers in thinking about the challenges and opportunities of the remarkable times in which we live, and how your unique background equips you to meet those challenges.