First Marshall McLuhan Centenary Visiting Fellows, University of Toronto

14Oct11

October 14, 2011

International Experts in Toronto as First Marshall McLuhan Centenary Visiting Fellows

TORONTO, Oct. 14, 2011 /CNW/ – The Faculty of Information, University of Toronto, is pleased to announce five media, communications and technology experts as the first McLuhan Centenary Visiting Fellows with the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology, signifying a revitalization of the previously unpaid Fellowship program.

Awarded $10,000 each, the newly appointed Fellows will spend up to a half year at the University of Toronto exploring the future as well as the past and the present of Marshall McLuhan’s influential theories. They will present their research at the first annual McLuhan international conference, McLuhan 100: Then | Now | Next and DEW Line Festival, from November 7 to 10, 2011.

• Dr. Dimitris Gkinosatis, is a Lecturer in Philosophy & Media Aesthetics at the Athens School of Fine Arts, in Greece. His research will examine the deep changes brought about in the field of traditional theoretical and historical studies of artworks.
• Dr. Paolo Granata, is Professor of Digital Catalogues for Cultural Heritage at the University of Bologna, and Multimedia for Cultural Heritage at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, Italy. He is applying an aesthetological approach to assess and understand the evolution expressions of contemporary art.
• Dr. Stephen Kline is a Professor in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University, and the Director of the Media Analysis Laboratory, in Vancouver, B.C. He is making a documentary on media-saturated family life in Canadaexploring relations between the patterns of children’s sedentary lifestyles, food consumption and their consumer socialization.
• Dr. Eric McLuhan is Director, Media Studies, and a lecturer at The Harris Institute for the Arts in Toronto. He is researching the grand renaissance of the 19th-20th centuries.
• Dr. Daniel Robinson is Associate Professor and Rogers Chair in Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario. He will be working on journal articles including the impact of Harold Innis’ Empire and the influence of McLuhan’s The Mechanical Bride on the field of advertising studies in North America.

For more details on the Fellowship research, visit http://mcluhan.ischool.utoronto.ca/visiting-fellows/

The conference and festival is the most significant gathering of McLuhan experts worldwide ever assembled. Alongside the academic conference over four days, a multidisplinary cultural festival offers Toronto residents and visitors alike the chance to know McLuhan through the eyes of the artist. According to McLuhan artists are harbingers of social and cultural change offering a “DEW Line: a distant early warning system.”

Then/Now/Next is hosted by the Faculty of Information (iSchool), in conjunction with Ryerson University, York University and OCAD University, the City of Toronto, and numerous other city cultural institutions. It is also financially supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Tickets are now on sale and can be purchased at http://www.mcluhan100.ca.    http://tinyurl.com/6d5owfo

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