Take a minute and read this book title:聽The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies聽Young Americans and Jeopardizes our Future (or Don鈥檛 Trust Anyone under 30).
Chances are those words elicited some kind of emotion.
If you鈥檙e under 30, you may have just looked up or away from your digital device and rolled your eyes.
If you鈥檙e over 30, your facial expression might be an unbidden, but half-amused grimace accompanied by a bit of nodding.
If you鈥檇 like to hear and engage with the author in person, whether to take issue with his stance, and/or to soak up the intellectual discourse of one of the eminent thinkers of the day, you鈥檙e in luck.
Author Mark Bauerlein, an English professor at Emory University, will speak at 草莓社区 Thursday, Feb. 5, on 鈥淭he Humanities in the Digital Age.鈥� Bauerlein鈥檚 talk will begin at 6:30 p.m. in Strite Conference Room in the Campus Center, followed by a discussion with the audience, including formal responses by , professor of , and , director of residence life.
Bauerlein will also speak at Friday鈥檚 10 a.m. chapel in Lehman Auditorium on 鈥淔rom Atheism to Catholocism.鈥� A talk-back with refreshments follows in Common Grounds from 10:30-11:30 a.m.
Bauerlein has taught at Emory University since 1989, with a break in 2003-05 to serve as the聽Director of the Office of Research and Analysis, at the National Endowment for the Arts. He has published numerous scholarly works, including an acclaimed account of a 1906 race riot in Atlanta, Negrophobia. In addition, his work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, The Washington Post, Times Literary Supplement, and the Chronicle of Higher Education, where his blog eloquently promotes the humanities.
For a preview of his visit鈥� and to develop a sense of Bauerlein鈥檚 wide-ranging and deeply personal conversation with and among great texts as an enlivened source of consolation, wisdom and revelation 鈥� read ,” published in the magazine First Things (in one sentence, he quotes Sartre, Faulkner and Nietzche, in that order).
That essay, and Bauerlein鈥檚 unique perspective about the relevance of the humanities in the digital age are reasons why , professor of , is pleased to welcome him to campus. Both Bauerlein鈥檚 book and academic studies are closely linked to this year鈥檚 campus Common Read selection, Nicholas Carr鈥檚 The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.
At a time when study of the humanities are under attack, Bauerlein is an ally of the many professors on college campuses who 鈥渁re eager to give students exposure to great texts, images, sounds and ideas,鈥� says Medley, who notes that it鈥檚 not the digital devices themselves that are the problem, but the time-consuming and intense nature of the peer-to-peer relationships they enable. 鈥淚f we can lure them away from their addicting digital devices, we think we can get them hooked.鈥�
Bauerlein鈥檚 lecture is the fourth event in a year-long exploration of the effects of the digital age on education. He joins two other scholars, both from University of Virginia, who have lectured on this theme: Siva Vaidhyanathan, professor of media studies and author of 鈥淭he Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should Worry), and Dan Willingham, professor of psychology and author of 鈥淲hen Can You Trust the Experts? How to Tell Good Science from Bad In Education.鈥�