Media Studies lecture on networks and proxy politics April 25

From high-speed financial networks to social media; from viruses to terrorism, networks lie at the heart of what is new in our current era. On Wednesday, April 25, Cornell Media Studies presents “Critical Data Studies: The Case of Proxy Politics," a talk by Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Professor of Modern Culture & Media at Brown University examining how the powerful concept of the “network” resonates across all disciplines. The 4:30 pm talk will take place in the Guerlac Room, A.D. White House, with a reception following. The event is free and the public is invited.

In her talk, Chun will argue that although there are strong interdisciplinary projects across the quantitative social sciences and physical, biological and computational sciences in network theory, bridges need to be built between qualitative and quantitative theories in order to take on the hard problems that face us now. “By thinking together,” she says, “we can question default assumptions in all our disciplines and work towards building a more sustainable future.”

Chun has studied both systems design engineering and English literature, which she combines in her current work on digital media. She is author of “Control and Freedom: Power and Paranoia in the Age of Fiber Optics,” “Programmed Visions: Software and Memory” and “Updating to Remain the Same: Habitual New Media,” and co-editor of “New Media, Old Media: A History and Theory Reader, 2nd edition.”  

She has co-edited special issues of American Literature, “New Media and American Literature,” and Camera Obscura, “Race and/as Technology.” She was a 2016 Guggenheim fellow, an American Council of Learned Societies and American Academy of Berlin fellow, and has been a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University, a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University and a Wriston fellow at Brown University. 

The April 25 talk is co-sponsored by the Society for the Humanities.