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Sarah Eeee

Dissent Magazine - Arguing The World - Are English Departments Killing the Humanities? - - 0 views

www.dissentmagazine.org/atw.php

shared by Sarah Eeee on 10 Jan 11 - No Cached
  • The focus of this post is not the thousand-and-one times told tale of how the corporatization of the university and state divestment from higher education has had a particularly disastrous impact upon humanities departments
  • We can treat these realities as facts to be taken for granted.
  • We might wonder if there are conditions of intellectual deprivation for which the institutional structures governing the humanities are partly to blame.
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  • For Arnoldians, literature would play the cultural role once occupied by religion, with beauty civilizing the modern individual.
  • The avatar of that attitude was Harvard’s Douglas Bush, who speaking in 1944 identified the cultural tradition running from the ancient Greeks through Milton as “that heritage for which the war has been fought.”
  • To put it another way, the English department currently labors under a deep paradox: it devotes much of its intellectual energy to declaring the limits of Anglo-American culture while being structurally wedded to that culture in a way that necessarily privileges it.
  • At the risk of being impolite, I will be pointed about their implications: this is not a progressive program of higher education, but is in fact a perniciously anti-progressive one. It confirms the casual undergraduate presupposition that nothing occurring before 1980 is of real significance, that the free market is the culmination of the human desire for liberty, and that digital fora for blather are now fundamental to meditations on our role in the universe.
  • In its youth it promised an education in literature without the hard work of learning languages, much to the dismay of classicists. In its middle age it offered a stripped-down version of philosophy under the banner of critical theory, an intrusion that philosophers bore with Stoic calm. Now in its senescence, the English department is being beaten by communications at its own game of watering down curriculum and reducing humanist traditions to what today’s adolescent will find—to use the favorite malapropism of the text-messaging generation—“relatable.”
  • In an age more forthright in its bigotries, Irving Babbitt advocated a New Humanism that readily embraced a meritocracy of learning. The humanitarian, in Babbitt’s phrase, “has sympathy for mankind in the lump,” where a humanist “is interested in the perfecting of the individual.” The return to the classics, or to great texts traditionally conceived, never seems in my mind fully to dispense with such patrician sensibilities.
  • The humanities programs of the next century might rather be structured around “world humanisms.” In such programs the phrase “great texts” would evoke the Bhagavad Gita every bit as much as it does The Iliad. The learning of at least one world language would be required, be it Arabic, French, or Mandarin. At its center would be neither the vernacular nor an artificially constructed “Western tradition.”
  • Instead it would explore on their own terms, and in their rich cross-fertilization, millenia of world traditions offering insight on the relationships between individual and society; on our ethical obligations to our fellow beings, human and non-human; and on flourishing and justice.
  • An example of a “world humanisms” approach is suggested by a conference that I recently attended in Istanbul, which brought together philosophers and theologians from North America and Turkey. One of the many rich portraits that emerged was of first-century Alexandria, where the Neoplatonism of the Jewish philosopher Philo directly influenced the early Christians Clement and Origen, as well as laying the foundations of Islamic philosophy through al-Kindi and al-Farabi. We are blinded to the study of this kind of influence by a focus on “Western Civilization” that favors Athens and Rome to Alexandria and treats Origen only as a precursor to Saint Augustine, that supposed inventor of an exclusively Christian syncretism between philosophy and theology.
  • Our task as humanists of the twenty-first century is to make those long and deep traditions visible, and to do so in the teeth of those forces that would strip them away, be those forces technological, commercial, political, or intellectual.
  • Sarah Eeee on 10 Jan 11
     
    An alternate take on the "future of the humanities" argument. This author proposes a revamped sort of literature study incorporating modern languages and a fervently international approach to literature, thought, and culture.
  • Sarah Eeee on 10 Jan 11
     
    This one skirts the edges of the digital humanities, by proposing a vision of future literature study. Explicitly digital projects could be useful for finding the international connections this author calls for.
Nyssa Silvester

Lawrence Lessig - Free Culture - 0 views

www.free-culture.cc/freeculture.pdf

digital culture lessig

shared by Nyssa Silvester on 11 May 11 - No Cached
  • Nyssa Silvester on 11 May 11
     
    If you want to read more digital culture books for free, here's another by Lawrence Lessig.
Amy Whitaker

Lawrence Lessig on the Free Access Movement-blog - 0 views

www.brainpickings.org/...ence-lessig-science-publishing

shared by Amy Whitaker on 09 May 11 - No Cached
  • Amy Whitaker on 09 May 11
     
    This is a great blog post on Lawrence Lessig's take on the free access movment (Lessig is the author of the digital culture book, Remix). This is relevant to anyone reading anything regarding digital collaboration and copyright laws.
  • Ben Wagner on 09 May 11
     
    Thanks for posting this it really adds to what Dr. Burton was just talking about with opening up the Library database, Definitely going to try and watch the whole video at some point.
Ashley Nelson

The Public Domain - 1 views

www.thepublicdomain.org

public domain digital

shared by Ashley Nelson on 09 May 11 - Cached
  • Ashley Nelson on 09 May 11
     
    Found this cool blog spot about the digital culture book that I am reading. They have a comic, link to read the book (free), and more cool things.
jardinejn

Stuart Moulthrop - You Say You Want a Revolution? Hypertext and the Laws of Media - Pos... - 0 views

muse.jhu.edu.erl.lib.byu.edu/...1.3moulthrop.html

digital revolution cyber evolution media control

shared by jardinejn on 29 May 10 - No Cached
  • . But
  • But
  • But
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  • Stoll excoriates "cyberpunks," virtual vandals who abuse the openness of scientific computing environments. Their unsportsmanlike conduct spoils the information game, necessitating cumbersome restrictions on the free flow of data.
  • Orthodox McLuhanite doctrine holds that "every form, pushed to the limit of its potential, reverses its characteristics" (Laws of Media viii).
  • Who decides what information "belongs" to whom? Stoll's "popular elite" is restricted to academic scientists, a version of "the people" as nomenklatura, those whose need to know is defined by their professional affiliation.
  • The telos of the electronic society-of-text is anarchy in its true sense: local autonomy based on consensus, limited by a relentless disintegration of global authority. Since information is now virtually an equivalent of capital, and since textuality is our most powerful way of shaping information, it follows that Xanadu might indeed change the world.
  • Electronic information, as Stoll sees it, lies in strict analogy with material and private property.
  •   "Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation... A graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system" (Gibson 51).
  • The vision of Xanadu as cyberspatial New Jerusalem is conceivable and perhaps eligible, but by no stretch of the imagination is it inevitable.
  • But it seems equally possible that our engagement with interactive media will follow the path of reaction, not revolution
  • jardinejn on 29 May 10
     
    Pros and Cons of the newly evolving concept of networking information back in the early 90s
  • jardinejn on 29 May 10
     
    Some interesting questions and speculations about potential controls on media from an early 90s perspective
jardinejn

An Introduction to Internet Governance by Jovan Kurbulija - 0 views

www.diplomacy.edu/poolbin.asp

internet history socio-cultural aspects of the internet digital divide online intellectual property

shared by jardinejn on 01 Jun 10 - No Cached
  • jardinejn on 01 Jun 10
     
    Goes over the development of the internet and laws and issues to do with consumer safety online
  • jardinejn on 01 Jun 10
     
    It's a 196 page book and covers a lot. I recommend looking through the table of contents to see if it relates to your project.
Krista S

6 Maps of Digital Desires: Exploring the Topography of Gender and Play in Online Games - 1 views

74.125.155.132/scholar

online escapism motivations gender identity

shared by Krista S on 02 Jun 10 - No Cached
  • Women in many MMOs perceive the game culture rather than the game mechanics to be the primary deterrent to poten-­ tial female gamers
  • On average, respondents spend twenty-­two hours each week in an MMO. The median was twenty hours per week—the equivalent of half a workweek. There were no significant gender or age differences in usage patterns; players over the age of forty play on average just as much as players under the age of twenty
  • While about 27 percent of female players were introduced to the game by a romantic partner, only 1 percent of male players were introduced in this way.
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  • Overall, about 25 percent of players play an MMO with their romantic partner. Female players are more likely to be playing with a romantic partner than male players (see figure 6.1). About two-­ thirds of female gamers are playing with a romantic partner, while less than one-­fifth of male gamers are
  • Men are allowed relatively free access to online games, but a woman’s presence in an online game is seen as legitimate only if it occurs via a relationship with a man.
  • It isn’t the case that women play only for socializing or that men play only to kill monsters. On the other hand, there are gender differences in these self-­identified motivations. Male players score higher in the Advancement, Mechanics, and Competition motivations, while female players score higher in the Relationship and Customization motivations. There were very small or no gender differences in the other five motivations—Socializing, Teamwork, Discovery, Role-­Playing, and Escapism.
  • In a recent survey, I asked female gamers about what they saw as potential deterrents to female gamers in the MMO they played. Almost every respondent cited the proportions and clothing options of the female avatars as problematic.
  • To a certain extent, this encourages players to think about women as token spectacles rather than actual players.
  • More important, many female players have learned that it is danger-­ ous to reveal your real-­life gender in MMOs because they will be branded as incompetent and constantly propositioned; In other words, they must either accept the male-­subject position silently, or risk constant discrimination and harassment if they reveal that they are female
  • Also, there are very few other places (in physical or virtual worlds) where high-­school students are collaborating with professors, retired war veterans, and stay-­at-­home moms
Amanda Giles

I'm So Totally, Digitally Close to You - Clive Thompson - NYTimes.com - 2 views

www.nytimes.com/...07awareness-t.html

identity reality social networking parasocial relationships ambient awareness

shared by Amanda Giles on 28 May 10 - Cached
  • Facebook and Twitter may have pushed things into overdrive, but the idea of using communication tools as a form of “co-presence” has been around for a while. The Japanese sociologist Mizuko Ito first noticed it with mobile phones: lovers who were working in different cities would send text messages back and forth all night — tiny updates like “enjoying a glass of wine now” or “watching TV while lying on the couch.” They were doing it partly because talking for hours on mobile phones isn’t very comfortable (or affordable). But they also discovered that the little Ping-Ponging messages felt even more intimate than a phone call.
  • capable
  • A lot of this is just social norms catching up with what technology is capable of.”
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  • ambient awareness
  • very much like being physically near someone
  • paradox of ambient awareness
  • insignificant on its own
  • he little snippets coalesce into a surprisingly sophisticated portrait of your friends’ and family members’ lives
  • Facebook and Twitter may have pushed things into overdrive, but the idea of using communication tools as a form of “co-presence” has been around for a while. The Japanese sociologist Mizuko Ito first noticed it with mobile phones: lovers who were working in different cities would send text messages back and forth all night — tiny updates like “enjoying a glass of wine now” or “watching TV while lying on the couch.” They were doing it partly because talking for hours on mobile phones isn’t very comfortable (or affordable). But they also discovered that the little Ping-Ponging messages felt even more intimate than a phone call.
  • the growing popularity of online awareness as a reaction to social isolation
  • human groupings naturally tail off at around 150 people: the “Dunbar number,” as it is known. Are people who use Facebook and Twitter increasing their Dunbar number, because they can so easily keep track of so many more people?
  • Constant online contact had made those ties immeasurably richer, but it hadn’t actually increased the number of them; deep relationships are still predicated on face time, and there are only so many hours in the day for that.
  • If you’re reading daily updates from hundreds of people about whom they’re dating and whether they’re happy, it might, some critics worry, spread your emotional energy too thin, leaving less for true intimate relationships.
  • Parasocial relationships can use up some of the emotional space in our Dunbar number, crowding out real-life people.
  • hey can observe you, but it’s not the same as knowing you.”
  • people in their 20s who were in college when Facebook appeared and have never lived as adults without online awareness. For them, participation isn’t optional. If you don’t dive in, other people will define who you are.
  • if only to ensure the virtual version of you is accurate, or at least the one you want to present to the world.
  • he dynamics of small-town life,
  • If anything, it’s identity-constraining now
  • result of all this incessant updating: a culture of people who know much more about themselves
  • t’s like the Greek dictum to “know thyself,” or the therapeutic concept of mindfulness.
becca_hay

Sexual Identity Online - M/Cyclopedia of New Media - 1 views

wiki.media-culture.org.au/...Sexual_Identity_Online

shared by becca_hay on 19 May 10 - Cached
  • Specifically, the opportunity for exaggerated, unreal portrayals of self lead many to question the validity of substantial, and truthful online interaction. As Jordan (1999: 88) argues, “…identity fluidity supports the masquerades and experiments of avatars…the ability to change gender, the ability to contact experts…â€?. In the physical world, such social experiments as playing with the alternation of gender or creating a completely different social background for the purpose of research, become far more complex and are less likely to occur. Alternatively, the Internet offers its users the potential to explore identity more easily and often most importantly, the ability to do so, anonymously.
    • becca_hay
      becca_hay on 19 May 10
       
      This digital masking can be compared with the actual costuming of actors in the transvestite theater. This is a test run using diigo
Ben Wagner

Ravings of a Feral Genius: "Life's A Joy That Has To End": John Hannah, Rest In Peace - 0 views

feralgenius.blogspot.com/...at-has-to-end-john-hannah.html

death digital culture

shared by Ben Wagner on 16 May 11 - No Cached
  • Ben Wagner on 16 May 11
     
    Roger Ebert tweeted this link earlier and I found it especially poignant. How do we grieve or even find out when people we only know online pass away?
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