Media Releases

International experts in Toronto as first Marshall McLuhan Centenary Visiting Fellows

October 18, 2011

TORONTO, ON — The Fac­ul­ty of Infor­ma­tion, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, is pleased to announce five media, com­mu­ni­ca­tions and tech­nol­o­gy experts as the first McLuhan Cen­te­nary Vis­it­ing Fel­lows with the McLuhan Pro­gram in Cul­ture and Tech­nol­o­gy, sig­ni­fy­ing a revi­tal­iza­tion of the pre­vi­ous­ly unpaid Fel­low­ship pro­gram.

Award­ed $10,000 each, the new­ly appoint­ed Fel­lows will spend up to a half year at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to explor­ing the future as well as the past and the present of Mar­shall McLuhan’s influ­en­tial the­o­ries. They will present their research at the first annu­al McLuhan inter­na­tion­al con­fer­ence, McLuhan 100: Then | Now | Next and DEW Line Fes­ti­val, from Novem­ber 7 to 10, 2011.

  • Dr. Dim­itris Gki­nosatis, is a Lec­tur­er in Phi­los­o­phy & Media Aes­thet­ics at the Athens School of Fine Arts, in Greece. His research will exam­ine the deep changes brought about in the field of tra­di­tion­al the­o­ret­i­cal and his­tor­i­cal stud­ies of art­works.
  • Dr. Pao­lo Grana­ta, is Pro­fes­sor of Dig­i­tal Cat­a­logues for Cul­tur­al Her­itage at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Bologna, and Mul­ti­me­dia for Cul­tur­al Her­itage at the Acad­e­my of Fine Arts in Bologna, Italy. He is apply­ing an aes­theto­log­i­cal approach to assess and under­stand the evo­lu­tion expres­sions of con­tem­po­rary art.
  • Dr. Stephen Kline is a Pro­fes­sor in the School of Com­mu­ni­ca­tion at Simon Fras­er Uni­ver­si­ty, and the Direc­tor of the Media Analy­sis Lab­o­ra­to­ry, in Van­cou­ver, B.C. He is mak­ing a doc­u­men­tary on media-sat­u­rat­ed fam­i­ly life in Cana­da explor­ing rela­tions between the pat­terns of chil­dren’s seden­tary lifestyles, food con­sump­tion and their con­sumer social­iza­tion.
  • Dr. Eric McLuhan is Direc­tor, Media Stud­ies, and a lec­tur­er at The Har­ris Insti­tute for the Arts in Toron­to. He is research­ing the grand renais­sance of the 19th-20th cen­turies.
  • Dr. Daniel Robin­son is Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor and Rogers Chair in Media Stud­ies at the Uni­ver­si­ty of West­ern Ontario. He will be work­ing on jour­nal arti­cles includ­ing the impact of Harold Innis’ Empire and the influ­ence of McLuhan’s The Mechan­i­cal Bride on the field of adver­tis­ing stud­ies in North Amer­i­ca.

For more details on the Fel­low­ship research, vis­it http://mcluhan.ischool.utoronto.ca/visiting-fellows/

The con­fer­ence and fes­ti­val is the most sig­nif­i­cant gath­er­ing of McLuhan experts world­wide ever assem­bled. Along­side the aca­d­e­m­ic con­fer­ence over four days, a mul­ti­dis­pli­nary cul­tur­al fes­ti­val offers Toron­to res­i­dents and vis­i­tors alike the chance to know McLuhan through the eyes of the artist. Accord­ing to McLuhan artists are har­bin­gers of social and cul­tur­al change offer­ing a “DEW Line: a dis­tant ear­ly warn­ing sys­tem.”

Then/Now/Next is host­ed by the Fac­ul­ty of Infor­ma­tion (iSchool), in con­junc­tion with Ryer­son Uni­ver­si­ty, York Uni­ver­si­ty and OCAD Uni­ver­si­ty, the City of Toron­to, and numer­ous oth­er city cul­tur­al insti­tu­tions. It is also finan­cial­ly sup­port­ed by the Social Sci­ences and Human­i­ties Research Coun­cil. Tick­ets are now on sale and can be pur­chased at http://www.mcluhan100.ca. Media pass­es are avail­able.

McLuhan100 Events Through­out Cen­te­nary

The Fac­ul­ty is host­ing or part­ner­ing with a num­ber of orga­ni­za­tions over the course of the year in hon­our of the cen­te­nary of Mar­shall McLuhan’s birth 100 years ago (July 21, 1911), and to expand the pro­gram glob­al­ly: “We want­ed to empha­size that McLuhan’s lega­cy is greater than just a retelling of his work,” says Prof. Sea­mus Ross, Dean of the iSchool.

Var­i­ous “McLuhan100” events will cel­e­brate McLuhan’s con­tri­bu­tions, such as the Mon­day Night Sem­i­nars, “The Edge of Acad­eme” (Oct. 17, 31, Nov. 14 and 28), and exhi­bi­tions at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Art Cen­tre, Justi­na M. Bar­nicke Gallery, and McLuhan’s Coach House (on now).

“The cel­e­bra­to­ry events are meant to infuse the city with McLuhan’s edgy spir­it, and to raise aware­ness in young minds about McLuhan’s works and incite them to play with the ideas he probed. The McLuhan100 Com­mit­tee believe that Toron­to should be a place of the mind,” says Dr. Dominique Schef­fel-Dunand, Direc­tor of the McLuhan Pro­gram in Cul­ture and Tech­nol­o­gy.

About the McLuhan Pro­gram in Cul­ture and Tech­nol­o­gy

Cre­at­ed for Mar­shall McLuhan in 1963 as the Cen­tre for Cul­ture and Tech­nol­o­gy, the McLuhan Pro­gram in Cul­ture and Tech­nol­o­gy, affec­tion­ate­ly known as “The Coach House,” has been part of the Fac­ul­ty of Infor­ma­tion (also known as the iSchool), Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, since 1994. Fif­teen years lat­er, the iSchool launched the Coach House Insti­tute (CHI), whose Direc­tor is Pro­fes­sor Bri­an Cantwell Smith, as a clear­ly defined research unit under which the McLuhan Pro­gram in Cul­ture and Tech­nol­o­gy now oper­ates.

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For fur­ther infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:

Kath­leen O’Brien
Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and Devel­op­ment Offi­cer
Fac­ul­ty of Infor­ma­tion
Office: 416–978-7184
kathleen.obrien@utoronto.ca
www.ischool.utoronto.ca