Briefings, Conference Presentations, Panels & Workshops
Associate Professor Brooke Duffy delivered two panel talks at the Association of Internet Researchers annual conference. In “From CareerTok to #Quietquitting: Social Media Communication about Work” (with Zoe Glatt), she explored post-pandemic discourses about work, power, and resistance taking place on and through social media. In “The Visibility Bind of Academia: Platforms, Self-Promotion, and Precarity,” she explored the oft-overlooked parallels between digital creators and academics at a moment when we are all roused to “put ourselves out there.”
Events
Cornell’s recently established Center for Racial Justice and Equitable Futures will be hosting its first public event on November 14 at the Johnson Museum of Art. The event, “Beyond 2024: Envisioning Just Futures and Equitable Democracy,” will bring together faculty and students from across the university to creatively showcase research and art, and build community to imagine a better future. Associate Professor Neil Lewis, Jr., organized the panel and will be moderating a discussion with students from the center’s first cohort of Racial Justice student fellows. Neil serves as an advisor to the Center.
Reminder: Join us for COMMColloquium Monday, November 18, at 1:30 pm in 102 Mann Library Building. Professor Jennifer Stromer-Galley (Syracuse University) will present “Disinformation and Deceit: Coordinated Sharing Behavior in Meta Ads around the 2024 Presidential Campaign.” The colloquium is followed by a reception, located in The Hub of the Department of Communication.
Invited Lectures
Adjunct Associate Professor Tarleton Gillespie delivered the Presidential Zeltzerman Lecture, “Generative AI: The Unresolved Responsibilities of Tech in a Changing Media Landscape,” at the University of Vermont. The talk encouraged a sociological approach to understanding generative AI as a media technology. Tarleton argued that dilemmas regarding the responsibility of technology and its providers—especially around data collection and copyright, algorithmic recommendation and its harms, and the obligations of content moderation—have been folded into these new technologies unresolved.
Professor Bruce Lewenstein delivered a lecture hosted by the Carl Sagan Institute in celebration of the late Carl Sagan’s 90th birthday, where he highlighted Sagan’s dedication to imagination.
Associate Professor Neil Lewis, Jr., will deliver the lecture “Revisiting the Wisconsin Idea: Publicly Engaged Research in the 21st Century” at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Journalism and Mass Communication. American higher education is under attack, in part because many do not see the sector’s value for addressing contemporary societal issues. One potential way to stem the tide of attacks is to revisit the Wisconsin idea—to conduct more publicly engaged research. In his talk, Neil will use examples from his research program to discuss conceptual, methodological, and practical ways of doing this work, as well as implications for the relationship between science and society.
Media Coverage
Associate Professor Andrea Stevenson Won and Graduate Student Ria Gualano were cited in the Cornell Chronicle article “Disclose Invisible Disabilities in Social VR? It Depends” and in the MSN article “Invisible Disabilities in Social VR: To Disclose or Not?” about their research, which Ria presented at the ACM SIGACCESS conference.
Taskforce
Professor Bruce Lewenstein is serving on a new national task force, Vision for American Science & Technology. The taskforce was recently highlighted by the Science & Technology Action Committee in press release, “New Task Force Convenes Leaders across Science, Industry, Academia, Philanthropy and the Public Sector to Inform the Vision for U.S. Science & Technology.”
