A Brown University professor will give a lecture Thursday as part of the speakers series presented by the UF Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere.
In her free lecture, “Towards New Practices of the Future,” Wendy Chun will explore the relationship between scientific data, theory and practice, as well as how the humanities play a role in the future workplace at 5:30 p.m. in Smathers Library, Room 100.
The renowned scholar of media and technology will also discuss topics such as climate change and research methods that are changing how scientists make predictions about the future.
“Our aim in this series is to highlight the ways in which the humanities are and continue to be relevant to all facets of the modern workplace and our quality of life,” said Bonnie Effros, a UF history professor. “In other words, it is another way to think about the current STEM versus humanities debates that suggest the tight links between these areas.”
Also Brown University’s modern culture and media department chair, Chun has studied both English literature and systems design engineering.
She has combined both fields into her research on digital media and in her books “Control and Freedom: Power and Paranoia in the Age of Fiber Optics” and “Programmed Visions: Software and Memory.”
“She looks at the impact of big data on the way in which we understand the world,” Effros said, “and suggests the continuing importance of humanists to these interpretive debates.”
Chun wrote in an email that now is the perfect time for scientists and humanities scholars to come together and answer the hard questions about our world’s pressing problems.
Ali Yusufali, a UF microbiology and cell science senior, said Chun’s work is persuasive, so students will want to attend.
“It’s going to be an interesting talk,” the 21-year-old said. “It shows how science, even with its organized knowledge and methodologies, has so many philosophical entities that still must be tackled.”
[A version of this story ran on page 5 on 12/3/2014]
