Green Futures Tuesday: Osorb: the ultimate oil spill solution? #gfstu

This event in the Green Futures Tuesday series was arranged on the 24th of January 2012, at 6pm GMT, by the Department of Green Innovations and Solutions.

Green Futures Tuesday: 3D printing: the end of consumerism? #gfstu

This event in the Green Futures Tuesday series was arranged on the 17th of January 2012, at 6pm GMT, by the Department of Green Innovations and Solutions.

The Swedish Twitter University opens Department of Green Innovations and Solutions

The Swedish Twitter University is launching a new Department of Green Innovations and Solutions, in collaboration with Green Futures magazine. The department will tweet a story from the frontline of sustainability every Tuesday at 6 PM GMT.

Steve Fuller: How to think like God #STU11

This presentation was given on Christmas Day, 25th of December 2011, 8 pm GMT, by Steve Fuller, @ProfSteveFuller, Auguste Comte Professor of Social Epistemology in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick, UK. Originally trained in history and philosophy of science, he is best known for his work in the field of ‘social epistemology’, which is concerned with the normative foundations of organized inquiry. It is also the name of a quarterly journal he founded in 1987 and the first of his eighteen books. His most recent books are The Sociology of Intellectual Life: The Career of the Mind in and around the Academy (Sage, 2009), Science: The Art of Living (Acumen and McGill-Queens University Press, 2010) and Humanity 2.0: What It Means to Be Human Past, Present and Future (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).  He is currently completing a history of epistemology to be published by Acumen in 2013.

Mark Ingham: New Paradigms in Pedagogical Thinking for the Academy of the very near Future, or how the Wasp Became the Orchid #STU10

This presentation was given on Wednesday, 21st of December 2011, 8 pm GMT, by Dr Mark Ingham, @ScopingPhD2010. Mark is visual artist who has been making work about and researching into ideas of autobiographical memory and its relationships with photographic images. This work is made up of a number of installations that use SLR cameras and LED light sources to create photographic projectors. They use photographic slides as their image source and are attempts to create a sense of memories being fuzzy narratives that can constantly change and be changed. These projected photographic images are an exploration into experiences of remembering and forgetting. They are attempts to evoke a form of ‘paramnesia’, whereby fantasy and reality collapse to create a sense of déjà vu. He is a Principal Lecturer at the University of Greenwich in the School of Architecture, Design and Construction. He is a Masters Programme Leader in the Design Future Despartment.

#STU11 – Steve Fuller: “How to think like God”

SunDAY, 25TH OF DECEMBER 2011, 8 PM GMT

Title: How to think like God.
Tweeter: Steve Fuller is Auguste Comte Professor of Social Epistemology in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick, UK. Originally trained in history and philosophy of science, he is best known for his work in the field of ‘social epistemology’, which is concerned with the normative foundations of organized inquiry. It is also the name of a quarterly journal he founded in 1987 and the first of his eighteen books. His most recent books are The Sociology of Intellectual Life: The Career of the Mind in and around the Academy (Sage, 2009), Science: The Art of Living (Acumen and McGill-Queens University Press, 2010) and Humanity 2.0: What It Means to Be Human Past, Present and Future (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).  He is currently completing a history of epistemology to be published by Acumen in 2013.
Abstract: “Without denying that many – though exactly how many is far from clear – people not only don’t believe in God but also appear to object to the very idea, it might be a good idea to get a sense of what it would mean to think like God. At the very least, this would give both believers and non-believers a clear sense of what they’re talking about. One might think that ‘theologians’, whose name literally means ‘scientists of God’, would offer some straight talk on the subject. And while some theologians do, many if not most are compromised by having to speak within one or another church stricture.

In any case, what better time to discuss this matter than the Christmas season! After all, the sort of God whose mind is worth fathoming is the one that led a motley crew of dissenting European Christians in the 17th century to initiate the Scientific Revolution. It’s this version God, which I believe remains very relevant, that I wish to discuss in my lecture. Even today, it’s pretty difficult to rationalize science – especially if we look at both the positive and the negative sides of its score sheet – unless we imagine ourselves as over time, albeit in fits and starts, getting closer to the mind of this hypothesized God, in whose ‘image and likeness’ the Abrahamic religions maintain that we have been created.

Of course, some believe that science was a big mistake to begin with, or that we’re likely to be doomed if don’t curtail science’s development. But that’s not my starting point.”

Eileen A. Joy: Notes Toward a Speculative Realist Literary Criticism #STU09

This presentation was given on Tuesday, 20th of December 2011, 8 pm GMT, by Eileen A. Joy, Associate Professor of English at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, where she teaches courses in medieval literature, contemporary fiction, cultural studies, and critical theory. She is the Lead Ingenitor of the BABEL Working Group (www.babelworkinggroup.org), Co-Editor of postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies (http://www.palgrave-journals.com/pmed/index.html), Co-Editor of O-Zone: A Journal of Object-Oriented Studies (http://ozone-journal.com), and Co-Director of punctum books (http://punctumbooks.com). She has published numerous essays and articles on medieval literature, cultural studies, post/humanism, and ethics (website: http://www.siue.edu/~ejoy).