Childish Enthusiasms, Perishable Manias

Universities are sites of gravitas, but what of levitas -- a lighter, more playful category? Does intellectually credible work depend upon a ⿿critical distance⿝ between scholar and object of study? Can we take something seriously without imposing a seriousness that it may not possess (or want)? How to retain (or recover) the intensely pleasurable relation to objects that we were allowed when younger? The seminar is predicated upon the proposition that effective scholarship need not suck the joy from the world.