On behalf of the planning committee, I want to invite the community to attend the Clifford Symposium at Middlebury College this Thursday and Friday. The Clifford Symposium is Middlebury’s premier academic event each year, tackling an interdisciplinary topic with broad interest. This event will explore "Transforming the Academy in the Digital Era," a timely topic that impacts us all. All events are free and open to the public except the final concert, which is ticketed. The full schedule & description is available at http://www.middlebury.edu/clifford , but I want to highlight a few major events:
* On Thursday, Sept. 18 at 4:30pm in McCullough, John Palfrey will present the opening keynote lecture, "Born Digital: Teaching and Learning in a Technological Age." Palfrey is current head of Phillips Academy, Andover, and former director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard; he is an expert in the relationship between technology, youth, and education, and will offer insight into the experiences students bring to Middlebury.
* On Friday, Sept. 19 at 1:00pm in Center for the Arts, Professor Tara McPherson from USC will present "Designing Digital Scholarship." McPherson is a leader in developing and using digital publishing platforms, and will offer insight into the possibilities and pitfalls of creating "born digital" academic work.
* Later on Friday at 4:30pm in Center for the Arts, Professor Siva Vaidhyanathan from University of Virginia will present "Technofundamentalism and the Massive Open Online Corruption of Higher Education." For anyone following the recent debates over online education, MOOCs, and other forms of so-called disruption, Vaidhyanathan's talk will provide a great stimulus for conversation.
* The closing event will be a multimedia performance called “Of Water and Ice" by Paul Miller (aka DJ Spooky, http://djspooky.com ) at 9pm on Friday at McCullough. Miller is one of the most influential and renowned electronic musicians and advocates for remix culture, and this exciting performance will straddle the digital and analog arts, as it explores the changing environment of Antarctica via a suite for violin, iPad, and video. Tickets are available at the college box office via http://go.middlebury.edu/boxoffice .
You can learn more about these four esteemed visitors at http://www.middlebury.edu/clifford and see the additional line-up of panels - on topics ranging from spatial research to online privacy - and demonstrations running throughout Friday, Sept. 19. Many Middlebury faculty and staff will be participating on those panels, or presenting their own digital work in the "Digital Poster Sessions" being displayed in the MCFA lower lobby throughout the day.
I hope to see many of you at these events!
-Jason Mittell
Oct 10, 2024, 7 to 8:30 PM
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