Free Public Lecture Explores the Future of the Humanities

Each year San Diego State University’s Department of Classics and Humanities invites a leader from the world of humanities to campus to present the John R. Adams Lecture in Humanities. This year the department is bringing two giants of contemporary culture — Vint Cerf, Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist, and Bruce Cole, senior fellow at the Ethics and Policy Center — to campus for an interactive discussion on “The Future of the Humanities in a Digital Age.”

“Digital technologies are bringing about enormous changes to the humanities, a field that has historically focused on the study of language, the printed word and artistic expression, among other subjects. The digital turn is creating dramatically new paradigms for humanists and scientists alike. We are honored to be hosting this unique conversation between two leading national experts who have long served at the forefront of the digital world and at the cutting edge of the humanities,” said Risa Levitt Kohn, chair of SDSU’s Department of Classics and Humanities.

Cultural giants

As vice president and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google, Cerf is responsible for identifying new enabling technologies and applications on the Internet and other platforms for the company. Widely known as a “Father of the Internet,” he is the co-designer, with Robert Kahn, of TCP/IP protocols and basic architecture of the Internet. During his tenure with the U.S. Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) from 1976-1982, he played a key role leading the development of Internet and Internet-related data packet and security technologies.

In an interview with SDSU NewsCenter, Cerf previewed some of the topics he plans to discuss with Cole during the Adams Lecture including how the processing of “big data” might reveal information about long-hidden works; and how styles of writing may become more aligned with the virtual environment created by the Internet.

Cole is a former chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities and a recipient of the Presidential Citizen’s Medal. Under his leadership, the NEH launched key initiatives, including “We the People,” a program designed to encourage the teaching, study and understanding of American history and culture, and the Picturing America project, which uses great American art to teach our nation’s history and culture in 80,000 schools and public libraries nationwide. He also created the NEH’s Digital Humanities Initiative and Office, which made the NEH a national leader in this new frontier of humanities access and knowledge.

Cole spoke with SDSU NewsCenter about how exciting it is for people across all generations to be at the forefront of this new digital frontier.

More Information

The Adams Lecture in Humanities is supported by the John R. and Jane F. Adams Endowment. Adams taught at SDSU from 1928 until 1968, serving as a professor of English and the first chair of the Department of Humanities before it was combined with the Classics.

This 22nd annual Adams Lecture will take place at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 26 in Montezuma Hall in the Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union and is free and open to the public. Advance registration is required and is available online. For more information, visit SDSU’s Classics and Humanities webpage.