Mark Poster visit

Posted on | October 5, 2004 |

This Thursday Mark Poster’s coming to the sandstone tower. I’ll paste the blurb below. If you’ve been following Jean and I as we plan the Everyday Life conference panel you might also be keen to come along to a one on one we’re setting up with Prof Poster earlier in the day for postgrads and postdocs working in new media. More details on request.

THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND and THE CENTRE FOR CRITICAL AND CULTURAL STUDIES
present
Professor Mark Poster
“Identity Theft, or What’s the Use of Having an Identity?”
Date: 5.30-6.30pm
Time: Thursday 7 October 2004
Venue: The Mayne Centre

Members of the public are invited to attend this free lecture, after which light refreshments will be served. All welcome.

Subject
This lecture examines how the crime of “Identity Theft” contributes to the redefinition of identity as something external to the self, and asks what the implications of this are in an increasingly networked and digital culture.

Abstract:
In the late 1990s, “Identity Theft” became a crime in the United States. At that time “Identity Theft” was determined to be the fastest rising crime in the country. It is a crime that depends on digital culture and networked computing. I ask how this crime works to redefine the nature of identity, how it exteriorizes identity, separating it from the interiority of consciousness and moving it into the realm of information machines. I ask as well about the implications of such theft for an emerging Western and Global culture that relies increasingly on digital media.

About the presenter:
Mark Poster is a Professor of History at the University of California Irvine where he teaches in the Department of Film and Media Studies , the History Department and the Critical Theory Emphasis. He has a courtesy appointment in the Department of Information and Computer Science and he is also a member of the Critical Theory Institute. His recent books are: What’s the Matter with the Internet? (University of Minnesota Press, May 2001), The Information Subject in Critical Voices Series (New York: Gordon and Breach Arts International, January 2001), Cultural History and Postmodernity (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), The Second Media Age (London: Polity and New York: Blackwell, 1995) and The Mode of Information (London: Blackwell and Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990).

Professor Poster’s visit has been co-sponsored by The Centre for Public Culture and Ideas, School of Humanities, Griffith University.

Category: Academia

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