EVENT WEBS: CONSTRUCTS, CONNECTIONS, CAUSALITIES

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Friday, May 9, 2008 | 8:45 AM to 5:00 PM | Calit2 Auditorium (California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology)

Co-sponsored by HumaniTech®, Network & Academic Computing Services (NACS), the Humanities Center, and the International Center for Writing & Translation.

Human understanding of history, science, culture, and even personal experience, identifies “events” as a central organizing concept. The World Wide Web has shown the power of expressing connections in a cyber infrastructure. Event Webs combines the conceptual power of “events” with the structural strengths of the Web. The conference explores this novel synergy in the areas of literature, cognition, religion, history, and culture from the viewpoints of distinguished experts in these areas.

Download conference flyer (PDF format).

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

8:45-9:00 | Welcome, Dean Vicki Ruiz, School of Humanities podcast
9:00-9:15 | Introduction: "Webs of Events" podcast by Ramesh Jain, Bren Professor of Information and Computer Sciences, UC Irvine
9:15-11:30 | Morning Session: Imagination, Belief, Reality
Introduction of presenters by convener/moderator, Maria Pantelia, Professor of Classics

"The Reality of Imagination" podcast
by Ngugi wa Thiong'o, UCI Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature
and Director of the International Center for Writing and Translation

"The Visual Perception of Objects and Events"
by Donald Hoffman, Professor of Cognitive Sciences, UC Irvine

"Monitoring the Remembering of the Religious Past"
by Jack Miles, UCI Distinguished Professor of English and Religious Studies at UC Irvine

Q&A with Morning presenters, Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, Donald Hoffman, and Jack Miles

 

1:15-3:00 | Afternoon Session: History, Culture, Experience
Introduction of presenters by convener/moderator, Bonnie Nardi, Professor of Informatics, UC Irvine


"Eventful History" by Ruth Mostern, Assistant Professor of History and Founding Faculty, UC Merced

"Events, Facts, and Narratives" by Lewis Lancaster, Professor Emeritus of East Asian Literature and Culture and Director of the Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative; and Ryan Shaw, School of Information Ph.D. Student, UC Berkeley

3:15-4:30 | Round Table Wrap-Up
"Building Event Webs" by Ramesh Jain

Group panel featuring Donald Hoffman, Lewis Lancaster, Ramesh Jain, Ruth Mostern, Ryan Shaw, and Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, moderated by Bonnie Nardi, Professor of Informatics, UC Irvine