Sessions For: College of Literature, Science & Arts

A seminar about photobooks interrogating the idea of "Vanishing Jews," examining how the notion of Jews "vanishing" gets played out in photo books in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Can technology improve the lives of Black boys? Recently, new reports, with familiar conclusions, discuss the way Black boys continue to fall behind, which is partially responsible for shrinking enrollments of Black men in college. Particularly striking are the declining numbers at HBCUs. In turning this conversation away from negative reporting toward positive action, we will explore the ways technology can intervene and provide new opportunities, pathways, and platforms for Black boys to thrive.
We want to make our events accessible to all participants. CART services will be provided. If you anticipate needing additional accommodations to participate or would like help filling out the RSVP form, please email Cherice Chan at chericec@umich.edu.

What happens when an ancient language meets modern technology? This lecture will discuss the role played by media technologies—such as the phonograph, typewriters, the telegraph, and computers—in the revitalization and modernization of Hebrew since the end of the nineteenth century. After lying dormant for two millennia as a mainly written language, Hebrew awoke from its literary slumber and became a living modern vernacular. The revitalization of Hebrew is unique and unprecedented in world history, and it has been studied in various fields; but the role of modern media technologies in mediating this revival has not yet been considered. This lecture will delve into questions such as: what was the role of sound recording technologies in shaping the reemerging modern Hebrew speech? And how did the Hebraized typewrite pushed for the modernization of writing in Hebrew?. It will show how these media, whose emergence ran in historical parallel to the revitalization of Hebrew, were an active force in shaping the language as a modern communicative medium. Hebrew was a historical media lab: written from right to left and in unique script, it posed technical as well as conceptual challenges to media which were originally designed for Latin script and Western writing systems. The adaptation of these technologies to Hebrew required various adaptations that shaped lingual mechanisms, which had social and political ramifications on the emerging Hebrew culture.