Faculty Symposium

Arts and Communication: Seeking Common Ground

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The transformative power of art and communication is explored in the symposium. Three panelists will discuss the central roles of the arts and communication in solving local and global problems with an eye on how media influence societies and cultures. Each speaker will give a brief presentation related to the symposium topic, followed by a panel discussion among all participants.

Leaders in the arts and communication, the panelists include David Weinberger, who is a senior researcher at the Harvard Berkman Center and author of the recently published Too Big to Know. Weinberger is an authority on how networked knowledge is changing fundamental ways in which people learn and interact.

Suzan-Lori Parks is a playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and performer who won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play, Topdog/Underdog and received the MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant." TIME magazine named Parks as one of “100 Innovators for the Next New Wave.” Her Ray Charles musical Unchain My Heart is scheduled to premiere on Broadway and her adaptation of the opera Porgy and Bess is currently running on Broadway.

Nicholas Namba is the U.S. State Department Acting Deputy Coordinator for Content Development and Partnerships. Namba leads U.S. public diplomacy efforts for information for policy initiatives and strategic communication programs reaching out to key international audiences in more than 140 countries. He has served the State Department in Moscow, Russia; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; and New Delhi, India.

Associate Professor of Visual and Media Arts Eric Gordon will be the moderator. Gordon is the director of the Engagement Game Lab. His research focuses on location-based media, technology and community, and serious games. Gordon has also co-authored Why Location Matters in a Networked World and authored The Urban Spectator: American Concept-Cities from Kodak to Google.

Linda Gallant, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies, was responsible for organizing the symposium.

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