Technology and Community
Technology and Community
The whirlwind pace of global technological development in the 21st century forces us to ponder the ways in which technology is redefining the communities to which we belong, as well as our relationships within those communities. Specifically, how is technology altering the texture of our communities and the very nature of how we relate to each other, personally and professionally? How has technology either enhanced or challenged the nurturing of community and relationships, from the local to the global context? What have been the privileges or benefits that have accrued to communities that are technology-rich, compared to those that are technology-poor? What lessons can we draw from past choices that give us good guidance for future choices?
2010-2011 Fall Schedule
Opening Convocation
Steven Berlin Johnson
Tuesday, September 7
8pm, Swasey Chapel
“The Networked Idea”
Steven
Berlin Johnson is the best-selling author of six books and the
co-founder of the website outside.in. His work maps the history and
geography of innovative ideas, exploring where culture-shifting
ideas emerge and how they spread. Drawing upon his upcoming book, Where
Good Ideas Come From, Johnson will discuss the ways communities
collaborate on breakthrough innovations in science, technology, and
culture -- and how the Internet is giving rise to new forms of group
intelligence, particularly in university environments.
Co-sponsored by the Office of the President, First-Year Programs, and the Ronneberg Series
Dr. Hubert Dreyfus
Monday, September 20
8pm, Burton-Morgan Lecture Hall
“Computation as Salvation: Awaiting the Singularity”
Dr. Dreyfus is a leading Heideggerian scholar and Professor of Philosophy at U.C. Berkeley. He is renowned for his work on the nature of expertise, on artificial intelligence, and on existential philosophy (especially Kierkegaard). He has received numerous awards for his scholarship and for teaching, including a Barwise Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an honorary doctorate from Erasmus University. He is the author or co-author of several books, including the widely taught Being in the World: A Commentary on Heidegger’s Being and Time and What Computers Still Can’t Do: A Critique of Artificial Reasoning. Dreyfus recently starred in a documentary, also titled Being in the World. The film is due out soon, as is his latest book, All Things Shining, co-authored by Sean Kelly. A philosophy colloquium will take place Sept 21 at 4:30pm in the Burton- Morgan Lecture Hall.
Co-sponsored by the Philosophy Department
Rebecca Skloot
Wednesday, October 6
7:30pm, Swasey Chapel
Rebecca
Skloot is a science writer and author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta
Lacks, a book that took Skloot ten years to research and write. The
book debuted to widespread critical acclaim, has been hailed as one
of the best books of the year by Amazon.com and was named a Barnes and
Noble Discover Great New Writers Pick for spring 2010. In addition to
writing this enormously popular book, Skloot is the guest editor of The
Best American Science Writing 2011, a contributing editor at Popular
Science magazine, and has worked as a correspondent for WNYC’s Radiolab
and PBS’s Nova ScienceNOW.
Co-sponsored by UPC, the Denison Lecture Series, the Laura C. Harris Symposium, the Ronneberg Series, and the Beck Lecture Series
Dr. Philip N. Howard
Thursday, Oct. 21
7:30pm, Burton-Morgan Lecture Hall
Dr.
Howard is an Associate Professor of Communication at the University of
Washington. In addition, he directs the World Information Access
Project and the Project on Information Technology and Political Islam.
His most recent book, The Internet and Islam: The Digital Origins of
Dictatorship and Democracy, investigates patterns of technology
diffusion between and within developing countries and the role of new
information technologies in political communication systems around the
world. He is also the author of New Media Campaigns and the Managed
Citizen, which was awarded the 2007 CITASA Best Book prize from the
American Sociological Association and the 2008 Best Book prize from the
International Communication Association, and has edited Society Online:
The Internet in Context and The Handbook of Internet Politics.
Dr. Jane Ginsburg
Thursday, November 11
4:30pm, Higley Auditorium
“The Author’s Place in the Future of Copyright”
Jane
Ginsburg is the Morton L. Janklow Professor of Literary and Artistic
Property Law at Columbia University and Director of its Kernochan
Center for Law, Media and the Arts. She teaches Legal Methods,
Copyright Law, and Trademarks Law, and is the author or co-author of
several books, including Trademarks and Brands: An Interdisciplinary
Critique, co-edited with Prof. Lionel Bently and Dr. Jennifer Davis,
International Copyright and Neighboring Rights, co-authored with Dr.
Sam Ricketson, and the Foundations of Intellectual Property, co-edited
with Dr. Robert P. Merges. Her Denison talk will address two key challenges in copyright – namely, an
author’s ability to bargain over a book contract, and the development
of technologies, such as the internet, that disseminate information outside traditional
copyright channels. These challenges can hinder an author’s ability to
economically capitalize on the publication of her work and lead to
questions about the artistic control over ideas in an age of
open-source information sharing.
Co-Sponsored by Communication Department and Phi Beta Kappa
Jimmy Wales
Wednesday, December 8
7:30pm, Swasey Chapel
Jimmy
Wales is the founder of Wikipedia, a free, open-sourced, and
collaborative web-based encyclopedia. In describing his motivation for
developing Wikipedia, Wales explains, “Imagine a world in which every single
person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human
knowledge. That's what we're doing.” The success of Wikipedia led to Jimmy
Wales being named one of the “100 Most Influential People of the Year”
by TIME magazine in 2006. Mr. Wales also founded the Wikimedia
Foundation and co-founded Wikia, a privately-owned free web-hosting
service.
Co-sponsored by UPC, the Denison Lecture Series and the Communication Department
2010-2011 Spring Schedule
Human Rights Film Festival Tuesday, February 1, 8, 15, 22 7pm, Slayter Auditorium *except* Feb. 15th which is Higley Auditorium Feb. 1: In the Land of the Free www.inthelandofthefreefilm.com Feb. 8: Out in the Silence wpsu.org/outinthesilence Feb. 15: Last Best Chance www.lastbestchance.org Feb. 22: Enemies of the People enemiesofthepeoplemovie.com Co-sponsored by International Studies, Student Activities, Communication, Education, International Student Services, Black Studies, Office of Multicultural Student Affairs, Sociology/Anthropology, and Political Science.Dr. Larry Hickman “Pragmatic Technology as a Path to Sustainability” Friday, February 4 3:30pm, Samson Talbot Hall 210 Larry Hickman, professor of philosophy and director of the Center for Dewey Studies at Southern Illinois University, is the author of Pragmatism as Post-Modernism, Philosophical Tools for Technological Culture, and John Dewey’s Pragmatic Technology. He is also editor or co-editor of more than fifteen volumes.
Co-sponsored by the Titus-Hepp Lecture Series and the Philosophy Department.
Alison Brown “Music Entrepreneurship: Independent Record Labels in the Digital Age” Friday, February 11 Noon – 1:30pm – Lunch & conversation (RSVP to hunts@denison.edu) Alison Brown has achieved success in many areas: a Harvard graduate, record label co-founder and owner, mother, and, the role that most people know her in: banjo virtuoso. In 1995 Brown put her financial background to work, founding Compass Records with her husband Garry West. Celebrating its 15th anniversary in 2009, the Nashville-based Compass Records Group is an internationally recognized label group with a catalog of over 600 roots music releases. Alison Brown and Garry West will discuss how the digital age has impacted independent record labels.
Co-sponsored by The Burton D. Morgan Program in Liberal Arts and Entrepreneurship Education and the Music Department.
Paddy Johnson -- Graphic Interchange Format Exhibit Gallery Opening Friday, Februay 18, 4-6pm, Mulberry Gallery Exhibit February 18 – March 26
Samhita Mukhopadhyay Monday, February 21 4:30pm, Higley Auditorium Samhita Mukhopadhyay is an activist, writer, and technologist based in Brooklyn, NY. She has written and spoken extensively on race, media, technology and gender, with a specific focus on the intersection of race and gender, whether in popular culture or politics. She is the technology director at the Center for Media Justice an Oakland based org that provides media strategy and action for justice based grass-roots organizing groups and was recently named Executive Editor of Feministing.com.
Co-sponsored by the Laura C. Harris Symposium and Women’s Studies.
Cristina Masters Monday, March 28 4:30pm, Higley Auditorium Dr. Cristina Masters is a lecturer in the Centre for International Politics in the Politics Discipline Area at the University of Manchester. Her current research is on a book project, Militarism, Gender & (In)Security: Biopolitical Technologies of Security and the War on Terror (Routledge, forthcoming autumn 2010). The book project explores the current biopolitical fetishisation of technology evident in contemporary practices of war.
Sponsored by the Laura C. Harris Symposium and Women’s Studies.
Dr. Andrew Light Friday, April 8 3:30pm, Samson Talbot Hall 210 "How To Risk a Culture War: Deep Disagreements from Biotechnology to Synthetic Biology” Andrew Light, of George Mason University and Center for American Progress, will discuss, "How To Risk a Culture War: Deep Disagreements from Biotechnology to Synthetic Biology."
Co-sponsored by the Titus-Hepp Lecture Series and the PhilosophyDepartment.
For more information about these and other events please contact:
Marlaine Browning
Academic Events Coordinator
740-587-6206
browningm@denison.edu