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On Heroes and Objects
If you could have any superpower, which one would you choose?
I’ve given this question (probably too) much thought since I started watching Heroes three years ago, but until last week, had no definite answer. In last week’s episode, Nathan (having all of the abilities Sylar had) touched objects to receive flashes of their histories: their previous owners, their former uses, and the events that happened around
them. This superpower has a name – clairsentience*– and this is definitely the one I would choose. Category: The Gnovis Blog
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Postmodernity Meets the Banking Crisis: A Conversation with gnovis Journal Contributor Andrew Hare
I recently connected with gnovis Journal contributor Andrew Hare, who had his paper “A Shift Realized: The Banking Crisis as the First Postmodern Event” published this past spring in the journal. He had some interesting insights on his paper and how some of his ideas and assumptions in the paper have evolved since its publication.
Postmodernism seems like a difficult concept to get one’s head around. How do you define postmodernism and where do you see it in practice in the modern world?Category: The Gnovis Blog
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Cultural Studies Under Fire
A debate started last month in the Chronicle of Higher Education with the publication of Michael Berube’s article “What’s the Matter with Cultural Studies?” His article was the spark that set fire to a debate (although not new by any means) over the significance of Cultural Studies programs. Has Cultural Studies positively impacted the University?
Category: The Gnovis Blog
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The Weekly Round-Up: H1N1 Vaccine Safety
As the vaccine for the virus formally known as “swine flu” finally hit the streets last week, the blogosphere and the news media grappled with public uneasiness over the H1N1 vaccine. Worried that your autumn sniffles could be a sign of something more serious to come? Not sure if you or your child should get the vaccine? It seems you’re not alone. Polling data, parent groups and even Bill Maher are considered in this edition of the Weekly Round-Up.
Category: The Gnovis Blog
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the problem with capitalization
The recent CNN article “Does your social class determine your online network” shed light on a theory that media ethnographer danah boyd developed several years ago after Facebook went public in 2006 – a theory that has been hovering over the past two years in CMC (computer-mediated communication) academic circles. boyd’s research on teenage computer-mediated social networking habits revealed a class-based shift from Myspace to Facebook after 2006.
Category: The Gnovis Blog
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gnovis Event: Why We Publish, and Why You Should Too!
Today, gnovis hosted a session entitled “Why We Publish, and Why You Should Too!” from 3-4pm in Car Barn 311. Joining us was a well-published panel of professors from CCT: Professors Jeanine Turner, Michael Coventry, Matthew Tinkcom, and David Ribes. The faculty joined the gnovis staff and 30 students to discuss why they publish (and why we should, too!). Below are some highlights of the evening’s panel.
Category: The Gnovis Blog
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Publishing, Blogging and You!
Come join gnovis for a discussion about the importance of publishing on Thursday, October 15th at 3pm in the Car Barn-Room 311 (CCT Conference Room).
Category: The Gnovis Blog
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MA Thesis: The 'Good,' the Bad and the Ugly
I’m a couple months away from my MA thesis deadline and, naturally, I change my central question as often as I do my underwear – maybe more so. The latest question has spiraled into a number of unmanageable sub-questions, and the unlimited Sangria brunch I consumed on Saturday failed to bring me any steps closer to answering them (though I did manage to pen a rather unintelligible paragraph or two when I got home). So I’d like to pose the most pressing of these questions to gnovis.
Category: The Gnovis Blog
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Digital Storytelling and the Future of the Book
In the past week, I’ve come across several examples of new products and services that illustrate the transformation that’s underway in how we read books and tell stories. Here’s a quick overview of what’s out there:
Just this past week, the Walt Disney Company launched DisneyDigitalBooks.com, an online book service that gives its target audience of 3 to 12 year olds access to the electronic versions of over 500 of Disney’s books.
Category: The Gnovis Blog
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Weekly Round-Up: AT&T, Google, and the FCC Go Toe-to-Toe
Is Google Voice a true telecom service to be held accountable by FCC guidelines? AT&T seems to think so. At the end of September, AT&T sent the FCC a complaint as to Google’s tendency to block certain rural areas from coverage, breaking from FCC policy. Should web applications and services that are continuously blurring the lines between phone and internet service be under the jurisdiction of the FCC? The back and forth debate intensifies this week….
Here’s the story, the response, and the blogosphere’s analysis:
Category: The Gnovis Blog