Spring Humanities Symposium at Messiah College explores the interface of technology and modern culture through a series of lectures, films and colloquia
February 4th, 2008
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GRANTHAM, Pa. (Feb. 4, 2008) — Modern technological advances and their impacts on human communications, relationships and environments can cause both celebration and anxiety. “Eyes Wide Open: Engaging Technology with our Humanity” is the central theme of the annual Spring Humanities Symposium at Messiah College from Feb. 25-29. Symposium keynote speaker, Edward Tenner, noted independent scholar, public intellectual and authority on issues related to the interface between technology and modern culture, will provide the symposium’s keynote address, “A User’s Guide to Unintended Consequences: Technology, Failure and Resourcefulness,” on Feb. 28 at 8 p.m. in Brubaker Auditorium in the Eisenhower Campus Center on the college’s Grantham campus. A book-signing will follow. Tickets for Tenner’s lecture are required and can be reserved by calling the college ticket office at (717) 691-6036. The entire symposium is free and open to the public.
In addition, students, faculty and guest lecturers will highlight the relationship between technology and humanity from a variety of social, economic, political, cultural and religious perspectives through films, discussions and lectures. The complete schedule is available at www.messiah.edu/schools/humanities/center/symposium.
The annual spring symposium is sponsored by Messiah College’s Center for Public Humanities.
About keynote speaker Edward Tenner
Tenner has established expertise in examining and understanding the relationship between technology and culture, and his latest book, “Our Own Devices: The Past and Future of Body Technology,” explores how technology, for better or worse, makes us human. “Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences” is an international bestseller in which Tenner argues for a more discerning approach to technological changes. In addition to his books, Tenner is a well-published essayist and contributor to many leading newspapers and magazines across the country.
Tenner is a visiting scholar of the department of history and sociology of science at the University of Pennsylvania and a senior research associate of the Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the National Museum of American History.
Symposium event highlights
• Feb. 25
Lectures, 7-8:30 p.m., Boyer Hall, room 131: “Technology, Human Welfare and the Issue of Global Warming” and “The Big Picture: Divine Providence, Technology and the Future.”
Film, 9 p.m., Boyer Hall, room 137: “Peace Through PayPal?”
• Feb. 26
Lectures, 7-8:30 p.m., Boyer Hall, room 131: “Embryonic Stem Cells and Therapeutic Cloning: Current Technology and Ethical Considerations” and “God is God and We Are Not: Technology and Identity in the Age of Information.”
Film, 9 p.m. Boyer Hall, room 137: A few short films on the theme “I Am Human; I Am Technology: Encountering Our Liberation, Alienation or What?”
• Feb. 27
Lectures, 7-8:30 p.m., Boyer Hall, room 131: “Technology and the Learning Community: Does Using Personal Response Systems in the Classroom Make Learning More or Less Personal?”; “Borderlands: Cyberspace as a Sight of Resistance”; and “Writing Social Histories of Technology: Rethinking the History of Cartography.”
Film, 9 p.m., Boyer Hall, room 137: Exhibiting a documentary produced from footage shot in Nepal, the discussion will focus on “Ethnographies of Technology and Representation Across Cultures.”
• Feb. 28
Keynote lecture, 8 p.m., Brubaker Auditorium, Eisenhower Campus Center: “A User’s Guide to Unintended Consequences: Technology, Failure and Resourcefulness” by Edward Tenner.
• Feb. 29
Talk-back session on the keynote address, 4 p.m., Boyer Hall, room 131
About Messiah College
Messiah College, a private Christian college of the liberal and applied arts and sciences, enrolls 2,800 undergraduate students in 55 majors. Established in 1909, the primary campus is located in Grantham, Pa., near the state capital of Harrisburg. A satellite campus affiliated with Temple University is located in Philadelphia.