'Impact of Technology' Series, Dec. 4, Culminates with Appearance by Author Douglas Rushkoff
November 20, 2013
Contact: University Relations
Phone: 410.837.5739
Douglas Rushkoff, author of Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now and a leading commentator on the ways that technology is transforming modern life, will speak at the culminating event of the University of Baltimore's Ampersand Institute for Words & Images series, "The Impact of Technology," on Wednesday, Dec. 4 at 5:30 p.m. in the M. Scot Kaufman Auditorium in the William H. Thumel Sr. Business Center, 11 W. Mt. Royal Ave. Rushkoff's talk, "The New Education Race: From Sputnik to Twitter," is free and open to the public.
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Rushkoff is a leading media theorist and observer who has coined such digital-age truisms as "viral media" and "social currency." In fact, many of his ideas have "gone viral," helping people to evolve their thinking on what it means to be an individual in a society where the line between private and public has been shattered, and where Warhol's 15 minutes of fame is considered to be an epoch.
Rushkoff's 12 books have covered technology, mass communication and pop culture, and his latest, Present Shock, examines the global flow of information and events, always moving, always changing, and sometimes resulting in major social phenomena like Occupy Wall Street or the Tea Party. Forbes described the book as "a big concept with profound implications for culture, politics and business."
Winner of the first Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity, Rushkoff was named one of the 10 most important thought leaders in the world by the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute. He has served as writer and host of three PBS Frontline documentaries, with a fourth, Generation Like, premiering next February. Other media appearances include CNN, The Guardian, NPR, NBC Nightly News, Larry King Live and Real Time With Bill Maher.
Rushkoff founded the Narrative Lab at New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program. He serves as an adviser to the United Nations Commission on World Culture, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Media Ecology Association and The Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics. He has been awarded Senior Fellowships by the Markle Foundation and is a Center for Global Communications Fellow of the International University of Japan.
Rushkoff's talk is of a piece with the UB Digital Initiative, a campus-wide effort that began this fall with a core question for the University's students, faculty and staff: "What does it mean to be living, working, playing, creating, and learning—and thriving—in this new digital world?" The initiative's goal is to engage the UB community in an inclusive, participatory, and creative process to produce innovative thinking in response to the core understanding that digital technology has already and irrevocably changed our world.
Signed copies of Rushkoff's Present Shock will be available following his talk.
Learn more about the UB Digital Initiative.
Learn more about the Ampersand Institute's "Impact of Technology" series.
The University of Baltimore is a member of the University System of Maryland and comprises the College of Public Affairs, the Merrick School of Business, the UB School of Law and the Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences.