Free and open to the public in 228 Battelle-Tompkins.

This talk draws from Amanda Parrish Morgan's analysis of the baby stroller as an intimate technology, explored in her book Stroller and her recent essay in Wired magazine, in order to consider the evolving relationship between technological innovations and the intimate space of the family.

Automated strollers, like the Gluxkind Ella now available for preorder, promise a more accessible option for caretakers needing mobility assistance. Of course it would be an overstatement to suggest that such automation strips meaning from human relationships, that a stroller powered by muscle rather than battery somehow signals a more meaningful, more real form of parenting.

But something—perhaps care, intimacy, or connection—stands to be altered in automating the intimate details of our lives. I can see the care my grandmother’s hands put in the neat rows of stitches on the sweaters she knitted me precisely because the product itself took time to make. Is it because taking and developing a picture used to take longer, be less certain to “turn out,” that the portraits I took of my high school friends on 35mm analog film feel more personal? Is the way we tend to equate work with worth complicated when a task becomes easier?

Join us for this meditative conversation about intimate technologies.

About Our Speaker

Amanda Parrish Morgan is the author most recently of STROLLER (Bloomsbury 2022), which the New Yorker named one of the best books of 2022. Her writing has appeared in The Rumpus, LitHub, Guernica, The Millions, n+1, Electric Literature, and The Washington Post, among others. She teaches at Fairfield University and the Westport Writers’ Workshop.

Come and share your ideas and perspectives about this provocative and unpredictable film!

Free and open to the public in 228 Battelle-Tompkins.

The most popular music on streaming services is old. Nearly three quarters of streams go to songs that are no longer current. Is this a sign that the hits of yesterday are better than the songs of today? Is Spotify being taken over by nostalgic Baby Boomers?

Maybe, but this isn't the entire answer. The rise of old music is the result of a collision between technological change, corporate maneuvering, artist litigiousness, and mass nostalgia. This collision leads to strange behavior on the pop charts, and it may very well be damaging creativity in music.

About Our Speaker

Gabe Bullard is a journalist and editor, and recent graduate of the MA program in Literature, Culture, and Technology at American University. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, a founding producer of the NPR show 1A, and is currently managing producer of NPR and WBUR’s award winning radio show "Here & Now."

Free and open to the public in 228 Battelle-Tompkins.

Join faculty and students in Cinema Studies for an informal discussion of Jordan Peele’s extraordinary film NOPE, moderated by professor David Pike.

Reviewers described Nope  as Jordan Peele’s “creepiest movie,” which is saying a lot about this extraordinary film, coming after his blockbuster hit Get Out (2017) and the uncanny and unsettling Us (2019). This community event brings together students and scholars in film studies to discuss the film, explore its encoding of science fiction and western genre tropes, trace its use of Twilight Zone vibes, and consider it in light of current questions about cinema and political allegories.

We are happy to launch this new series of events in collaboration with the MA Program in Literature, Culture, and Technology, offered in the Department of Literature at American University. These interdisciplinary conversations highlight the complex relationships that characterize our mediated world, bringing together scholars, students, researchers, critics, and entrepreneurs in the humanities, the sciences, and a diverse range of technology fields.

Our Spring 2023 speakers include:

• Gabe Bullard, journalist and editor, and recent graduate of our MA program in Literature, Culture, and Technology. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, a founding producer of the NPR show 1A, and is currently managing producer of NPR and WBUR’s award winning radio show Here & Now.
• Amanda Parrish Morgan, author most recently of Stroller (Bloomsbury 2022), which the New Yorker named one of the best books of 2022. Her writing has appeared in The Rumpus, LitHub, Guernica, The Millions, n+1, Electric Literature, and the Washington Post, among others. She teaches at Fairfield University and the Westport Writers’ Workshop.

Train image from Chris Burden’s installation Metropolis II (2010) at LACMA. Photo: Despina Kakoudaki.