The Thirteenth Annual Convention of the Media Ecology Association
The Crossroads of the Word
June 7–10, 2012
Manhattan College, Riverdale, New York
For Registration and Preliminary Program, go to
Deadline for Preregistration: May 15
Times Square, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue in New York City, has often been referred to as the “Crossroads of the World.”
In fact, New York City itself can be considered a crossroads of the world. New York Harbor is home to Ellis Island, the main point of entry for the “huddled masses” who came to the United States in search of a better life, particularly as part of the “great immigration” of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and who became part of America’s great “melting pot.” The city’s five boroughs are home to the most diverse population of any city on earth, with virtually every culture and language group represented.
New York is also a crossroads of the media/mass media world: home to the U.S. corporate headquarters of almost all of our major multinational media conglomerates; home to Silicon Alley; and the indisputable news and information capital of the United States.
It must be added, too, that the way we understand, analyze, and make sense of our world and all things in it is through our human language, in its spoken, written, and print forms. That is to say, our world is all about words. And at this juncture in the history of human civilization, in which people speak of a “post-literate culture,” after media ecologist Walter Ong, S. J., subtitled his book Orality and Literacy “The Technologizing of the Word,” and media ecologist Jacques Ellul wrote The Humiliation of the Word, we can perhaps say that we stand at a “Crossroads of the Word.”
Convention Coordinator: Thom Gencarelli (thom.gencarelli{at}manhattan.edu).
Featured Speakers
Sherry Turkle, Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and author of The Second Self, Life on the Screen, and her latest book Alone Together (Thursday evening, June 7)
Douglas Rushkoff (http://www.rushkoff.com/), winner of the MEA’s first Neil Postman award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity, author of ten books including the recent Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age, and producer of three Frontline documentaries including “Merchants of Cool”, “The Persuaders”, and “Digital Nation” (Friday, June 8)
Terence P. Moran, Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University, one of the three founding members of NYU’s media ecology doctoral program, and author of Selling War to America: From the Spanish American War to the Global War on Terror and Introduction to The History of Communication: Evolutions and Revolutions (Saturday, June 9)
Jaron Lanier (http://www.jaronlanier.com/), computer scientist, composer, visual artist, author of You are Not a Gadget, and one of Time magazine’s “100 People” for 2010 (Saturday evening, June 9)
The program will also include plenary sessions in celebration of the centenary of the birth of Walter J. Ong and Jacques Ellul.
Campus Housing
Campus housing at Manhattan College will be available from Wednesday night, June 6 through Sunday night, June 10 (with checkout on Monday morning, June 11). This housing is situated just a two-minute walk from the buildings in which the convention will be held.
Pricing is as follows:
• $60 US per person per night for a private bedroom in a two-bedroom suite with a shared bath
• $100 US per person per night for a private bedroom with a private bath
To reserve campus housing please check the following two-step process:
1) Call Fiona Delaney, the Office Manager at the College’s Business Office, at 1-718-862-7456, between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, Monday through Friday. Tell Fiona you wish to reserve campus housing during the Media Ecology Association Convention, and tell her which housing option you prefer. The College accepts Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover.
2) E-mail Brian Korney at bkorney.student{at}manhattan.edu with
(a) your name (b) your housing option (c) the dates you will be staying.
This will guarantee your reservation and ensure that we have an accurate housing list.
Hotels
For those of you who prefer to stay at a hotel, you have two options: You can stay at a hotel in midtown Manhattan. Or you can stay at a hotel In Yonkers, New York – a few miles north of campus.
If you choose to stay at a hotel in midtown Manhattan, please note the following:
(1) New York City has a great many hotels from which to choose. If you are not happy with the ones we recommend below, you are of course free to search for your own.
(2) The hotels we recommend are all located on the west side of Manhattan, and are convenient to the No. 1 subway train, which will take you right down the hill – a two-minute walk – from the Manhattan College campus. If you choose an alternative hotel, we recommend that you also choose one on the West Side. (Subway directions can be found below.)
(3) The recommended hotels do not offer a special convention rate, as we are not using their services otherwise.
(4) A subway ride from midtown to the campus takes about a half hour.
If you choose to stay at one of the recommended hotels in Yonkers, New York – both of which are located about seven miles (11.25 Km) from campus – you will need to either rent a car or take a taxi to campus and back. A taxi costs approximately $16.50 US each way.
Hotels in Manhattan
The following two hotels in Manhattan are presently pricing at about $250 per person per night:
• The Milburn Hotel – 242 West 76th Street Manhattan College uses this hotel to house guests who wish to stay in midtown
• Holiday Inn – 440 West 57th Street
In addition, the MEA has used the following hotel in the past. However, it is presently pricing at $379 per person per night:
• Hudson Hotel – 356 West 58th Street
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Hotels in Yonkers, New York
• Hampton Inn and Suites – 160 Corporate Boulevard Manhattan College also uses this hotel to house guests Presently pricing at $179 per person per night (or $152 non-refundable)
• Ramada Inn – 125 Tuckahoe Road Presently pricing at $129 per person per night
Directions to Campus from the No. 1 Subway Line
• Take the No. 1 subway north to the end of the line – the Van Cortlandt Park/242nd Street stop.
• Walk up the hill on West 242nd Street to College’s main gate on the right.
• Signs will be posted to direct you to the buildings in which the convention is being held
Blog de Octavio Islas 