I’m a graduate student pursuing a doctorate, but even I, a lifelong nerd, would have had trouble getting excited about an academic conference as an undergraduate. People reading research papers verbatim, reciting statistics and figures, a keynote speaker who wrote some inaccessible book a decade ago that responded to somebody else’s inaccessible book from a decade earlier – no thanks.
The second annual Theorizing the Web conference being held on the campus Saturday does things differently. My co-organizers and I want to make an event that combines academic research with everyday topics, breaking news and interesting art. This conference is not just for researchers but also artists, activists, teachers and the students at the core of our public university – all talking to each other about the social impacts of the Internet and how everyday lives are now wrapped up in digital experiences.
We want a different kind of conference. The traditional model that I poke fun at above is important. It’s where academics meet to develop and exchange new, exciting ideas. But this model has largely failed in terms of engaging other students and academics in other buildings, let alone the general public. That is a problem we want to fix.
Last year’s Theorizing the Web had 14 panels, workshops, symposia (one on social media’s role in the Arab revolutions, the other on social media and street art), plenaries by Saskia Sassen and George Ritzer, a keynote by Danah Boyd and more than 250 attendees from around the world. Attendees discussed political uprisings, digital identities and design questions. Many attendees remarked online and to conference co-chairs Nathan Jurgenson and PJ Rey that the atmosphere was both more collegial and more engaging than the standard conference fare.
This year, we carry our interests in accessibility and engagement into a more focused format: 10 panels, art installations, a film screening and a keynote conversation between Zeynep Tufekci and NPR’s Andy Carvin. Participants’ work is important, and approachable, for multiple audiences. Panels will be streamed live and archived online, and there will be an active Twitter backchannel (#TtW12) that will allow people outside the conference walls to engage in the conversation.
Our philosophy is to engage multiple audiences to best get at the intersection of technology and society. When approaching issues as important as, for example, the role of Twitter in the Arab Spring, we need the perspectives of designers, journalists, big data researchers, social movement historians, activists on the ground and Twitter users abroad to tell the full story. We see public outreach as a major part of our work in higher education, both in terms of spreading the knowledge we have and emphasizing the role the university can play in issues of broad public concern. So we want to use the technologies at our disposal to make these conversations accessible to anyone who wants to get involved. You don’t need to have written or be writing a dissertation to engage with Theorizing the Web, nor do you need to be physically present at the conference. We want those messy, raucous conversations that emerge from clashes of perspectives and values, because the world we all live in is like that – a never-too-neat overlapping of the digital and the physical that demands new literacies, attitudes and collaborations.
So whether it’s on Twitter, in the audience or on the stage Saturday, we’re excited to hear what our vibrant university community has to say about life on, in and through the web. For more information, please visit cyborgology.org/theorizingtheweb.
Daniel Greene is a publicity officer for Theorizing the Web 2012 and a doctoral student in American studies. He can be reached at dan.greene10@gmail.com.
