Two lectures in Washington DC

[AAllan at AOL.COM]

>From the National Endowment for the Humanities:

The NEH is now announcing the next two speakers in our eHumanities lecture
series in Washington, DC. Please pass to your colleagues.
===========================

eHumanities
An NEH Lecture Series on Technology & the Humanities
Registration is free via our website:
http://www.neh.gov/online/ehumanities.html

The National Endowment for the Humanities is proud to announce a series of
lectures on eHumanities, which will bring leading scholars to Washington, DC
to discuss digital technology and its importance to the humanities.

* * * * * * * * * *

LECTURE II

Tuesday, May 1, Noon - 1:00 pm

Professor Alan Liu
University of California, Santa Barbara

TITLE: Historicizing "Information"

DESCRIPTION:  What is the value of historical knowledge as studied in the
humanities in an information age when only the technologically "new,"
"cutting-edge," and "just-in-time" seem to have real value? In this lecture,
Alan Liu will discuss a philosophical and historical approach to information
as well as his own pedagogical and research approaches to making history
matter in the era of instantaneous knowledge. He will use examples found in
in Albert Borgmann's 1999 book, "Holding On to Reality: The Nature of
Information at the Turn of the Millennium."

* * * * * * * * * *

LECTURE III

Tuesday, June 5, Noon - 1:00 pm

Professor Eric Rabkin
University of Michigan in Ann Arbor

TITLE: Using Computers to Discover Cultural Truths: The Genre Evolution
Project Studies Science Fiction

DESCRIPTION: The Genre Evolution Project is testing the hypothesis that
cultural materials, like biological organisms in their environments, evolve
as complex adaptive systems. In order to test this hypothesis, the GEP has
developed new, collaborative, computer-based methods that bridge the usual
gap between qualitative and quantitative research. Using the American
science fiction short story as its first test subject, the GEP has made
discoveries both in critical theory in general and in science fiction in
specific. Among the latter discoveries is a new understanding of the
evolution of characterization that not only contradicts received literary
historical truisms but suggests why critics may have gotten this wrong and
what in fact created the literary evolution we now document.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----

What is eHumanities all about?

How does technology affect traditional humanities disciplines?  Some
scholars and educators have argued that in just a few short years, advances
in information technology and the development of the Internet have had a
more dramatic affect on the way people read, write, and exchange information
than any invention since the printing press. In the long term, what will its
impact be on our notions of literature?   On our culture and society?   What
are some of the philosophical ramifications of these advances?  The goal of
this series is to highlight some of the important work being done by
scholars who are studying digital technology from various perspectives in
the humanities.

The lectures will take place at the National Endowment for the Humanities,
1100 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20506 in Room M-09.  Attendance is
free, but please register in advance (see below). Feel free to share this
announcement with your colleagues.

Registration is free via our website:
http://www.neh.gov/online/ehumanities.html