Fred and Elaine Moonen Scholarship valued at $1,000 – Kathleen Raso

Radio Station CHMB AM1320 Award in Communication valued at $2,000 – Heather Forbes

Rogers Communications Inc. Award in Communication valued at $2,300 – Tamarah Prevost

FREE PUBLIC LECTURE

Thursday, March 25, 2010, 7:00 pm
Room: Joseph and Rosalie Segal Centre (1400-1410)
Reception: Teck Gallery

Seating is limited
Please RSVP at: http://www.sfu.ca/reserve

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The Return of the Gift: Participation and Exploitation on the Internet

The expansion of the internet has seen the rapid growth of a new gift economy based on the principle of reciprocity. From the open source movement, to Wikipedia, file sharing, social networking, and Twitter, more and more people are participating in building new communal spaces and developing collaborative projects. Some commentators see unrivalled opportunities for corporations to tap into the expertise and engagement provided by this growth of voluntary labour. But when does collaboration become exploitation? And how should public cultural institutions – libraries, museums, universities, public service broadcasting – respond to the upsurge of vernacular creativity? This lecture examines the ways companies are co-opting digital gift economies and argues for the construction of a counter-balancing alternative – a public digital commons built around the integration of grass roots on-line participation and public cultural institutions re-made for the digital age.

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Graham Murdock is Reader in the Sociology of Culture at Loughborough University (UK). He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of California at San Diego, The Free University of Brussels, Bergen University, and Stockholm University. He has written widely on the social and cultural organisation and impacts of established and emerging media but is best known for his work on the critical political economy of communication. He is a former head of the Political Economy Section of the International Association of Media and Communication Research (IAMCR).  His work has been translated into nineteen languages. His recent books include (as co-edited with Janet Wasko), Media in the Age of Marketisation (Hampton 2007). Three further co-edited collections will be out in 2010, Digital Dynamics (Hampton), The Idea of the Public Sphere (Rowman and Littlefield) and The Blackwell Companion to the Political Economy of Communication (Blackwell).

SFU gives its annual President’s Award for Service through Public Affairs and Media Relations to one or more faculty members who have demonstrated outstanding service to the university by sharing their expertise through media and other public relations activities. This year’s winners are Richard Smith and Doug McArthur. Their disciplines and choice of communication venues are distinctly different, with Smith preferring the new social-media universe while McArthur’s wisdom typically graces newspaper op-ed pages. But they share the same fierce dedication to informing public dialogue and promoting a free press through their access to reporters and editors.

In Twitter terms, news of communication professor RICHARD SMITH’S award might read:
Congrats @smith! The prez appreciates yr awesome service to @sfu via Twitterverse, blogosphere & mainstream media #followfriday Pls RT!

When it comes to the brave—and frequently misunderstood—new world of technology, social media and public surveillance, Smith likely has an opinion and is willing to share it with fellow researchers, students, and significantly, the public at large.

His nominators included several pages of examples of his spirited engagement with local, national and international journalistic outlets.

Smith says he responds to media calls “because it’s part of my job, but also because I enjoy explaining things.

“Often my role in a media interview isn’t so much telling about my research as it is about putting a context around, or commenting on, or providing background to, or criticizing something that has happened in the world.

“When asked, I respond with opinions, insight, examples, or explanations. But I rarely initiate contact with a journalist on my own—and that’s why SFU’s public affairs team is so important.

“When a scientist has something important they want to share with the public—as with my recent art show on the theme of surveillance—I strongly recommend they work with the professionals to get their message out.

“I’d caution against playing around in the media sandbox by yourself unless you’re prepared to get sand in your mouth….”

Chair:  Dr. Catherine Murray,  Professor
Senior Supervisor:  Dr. Alison Beale, Professor
Supervisor:  Dr. Jacob Eyferth, Professor, East Asian Languages and Civilization, University of Chicago
Supervisor:  Dr. Yuezhi Zhao, Professor
Internal Examiner:  Dr. Habiba Zaman, Professor, Women’s Studies
External Examiner:  Dr. Tsering Wangdu Shakya, Director of Contemporary Tibetan Studies Program, UBC

TZhangAbstract

Summary
Science and technology studies, cultural anthropology and cultural studies deal with the complex relations between material, symbolic, technical and political practices. In a Deleuzian approach these relations are seen as produced in heterogeneous assemblages, moving across distinctions such as the human and non-human or the material and ideal. This volume outlines a Deleuzian approach to analyzing science, culture and politics. “This remarkable work… creates a compelling radicalism from which to broach issues and problems that turn out to belong to no one discipline.” —Marilyn Strathern, Cambridge University “Science studies has long been in need of some Deleuzian lines of flight from its predictable territories — now the wait is over… If the next century will be known as Deleuzian, as Foucault famously predicted, then the next century’s science studies will proliferate and unfold from the rich materials collected here.” —Mike Fortun, Department of Science and Technology Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Thank you to all the Moonen candidates this semester. You were all exceptional and the final selection process was very difficult.

Chair:  Adam Holbrook, Adjunct Professor
Senior Supervisor:  Dr. Andrew Feenberg, Professor
Supervisor:  Dr. Richard Smith, Professor
Supervisor:  Dr. Richard Gruneau, Professor
Internal Examiner:  Dr. John Maxwell, Assistant Professor, Master of Publishing
External Examiner:  Dr. John Willinsky, Professor, School of Education, Stanford University

KMilberryAbstract

Chair:  Stuart Poyntz, Assistant Professor
Senior Supervisor:  Pat Howard, Associate Professor, Retired
Supervisor:  Martin Laba, Associate Professor & Director
Supervisor:  Richard Gruneau, Professor
Internal Examiner:  John O’Neil, Dean, Health Sciences
External Examiner:  Joan Anderson, Professor Emerita, School of Nursing, UBC

SKhan abstract

- what does it involve?
- why do people do Honours projects?
- how do I chose an Honours research subject?
- how do I find a supervisor for my project?
- what does it cost and how long does it take?

Anyone who is considering doing an honours program should attend, as well as anyone who is curious.

Details:

Date:  Tuesday December 8
Time:  11am – noon
Place:  Conference Room:  K8652