Theory Colloquium

Friday, September 17, 2010
3:30 pm - 5:30 pm
3134 Tawes
 

2010-2011 Critical Theory Colloquium
MIXING MEDIA


Following last spring’s focus on Post-Enlightenment Theory and Practice, which concluded with a session on media and mediation, the topic of the 2010-11 Critical Theory Colloquium will be MIXING MEDIA.
 
Over the course of the year, we will consider media theory across the arts and humanities. Colloquia will be devoted to readings of recent work published in the field and will feature guest presentations by new ARHU faculty in American Studies (Professor Jason Farman), Art (Professor Hasan Elahi), and Women’s Studies (Professor Tara Rodgers), who were hired as part of the College’s digital humanities initiative. In the spring semester, Professor Richard Grusin, the Director of the Center for 21st-Century Studies at the U of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, will join us for a colloquium (co-sponsored by the Department of English and MITH).
 
A special thanks to Professor Matt Kirschenbaum for contributing to and participating in this year’s Theory Colloquium.
 

SCHEDULE & READINGS


Our first colloquium will take place on Friday, September 17, at 3:30 pm in Tawes 3134. (Please note that the colloquium will conclude in time for observation of Yom Kippur.)
 
Below, please find a list of the readings:
 
•            N. Katherine Hayles, “Speech, Writing, Code: Three Worldviews,” from My Mother Was a Computer: Digital Subjects and Literary Texts (Chicago UP, 2005).
•            Lisa Gitelman, “Introduction: Media as Historical Subjects” and “New Media </Body>,” from Always Already New: Media, History, and the Data of Culture (MIT P 2006).
•            Lisa Gitelman, “Modes and Codes: Samuel F. B. Morse and the Question of Electronic Writing,” from This Is Enlightenment, ed. Clifford Siskin and William Warner (Chicago UP, 2010).
•            Braxton Soderman, "Index and Algorithm,” differences 18(1): 153-186 (2007).
•            John Guillory, “Genesis of the Media Concept,” Critical Inquiry 36.2 (2010): 321-62.
 
The journal articles (Soderman and Guillory) are available through McKeldin’s Research Port. Students formally enrolled in the Theory Colloquium can download the remaining readings from the Colloquium’s Blackboard page. Others are asked to send a request for the readings to Tita Chico (tchico@umd.edu ).
 
 
Upcoming Colloquia, Fall 2010
(Please note that colloquia begin at 4 pm)

Friday, October 8
Student Research Presentation
Uchechi Okereke-Beshel, Ph.D. Candidate
Department of English
 
Friday, October 22
Mixing Media: Guest Presentation
Professor Jason Farman
Department of American Studies
 
Friday, November 12
Mixing Media: Readings
 
Friday, December 3
Mixing Media: Guest Presentation
Professor Hasan Elahi
Department of Art
 
SPRING 2011
Mixing Media: Guest Presentation
Professor Tara Rodgers
Department of Women’s Studies
(date tbd)
 
Mixing Media: Guest Presentation
Professor Richard Grusin
Director, Center for 21st-Century Studies
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Co-sponsored by MITH and the Department of English
(8 April 2011)
 
 
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The Theory Colloquium is offered as part of the ARHU Graduate Critical Theory Certificate Program. The Colloquium is open to all members of the UMCP community regardless of official enrollment.  For information about the Certificate Program, please see http://www.english.umd.edu/grad-degree-/certificate-programs/grad-degree-certif-ct or contact Tita Chico, the current program coordinator, at tchico@umd.edu .
For more information contact: Tita Chico (tchico@umd.edu)