Critical Tech Talk 2.1: Black Media Philosophy and Beyond with Armond R. Towns
Wednesday, September 20, 2023, 5:00 - 6:30 p.m. | Register for this in-person and virtual event
This Critical Tech Talk event features Armond R. Towns, on the modern research university, race, and communication and media studies. Following the talk, there will be a short reception for in-person attendees at the Science Teaching Complex (STC).
About the talk
Much of the contemporary research on race in communication media studies begins with media representations. However, for this talk, Armond R. Towns will focus on the relationship between the modern research university, race, and the development of communication and media studies in the early and mid-twentieth century, with a focus specifically on US and Canadian communication and media studies. Like the modern university, the discipline of communication and media studies, Towns argues, has a difficulty with understanding non-Western life. This talk is a beginning conversation on how to push toward new forms of understanding humanity beyond Western life. The topic of “who counts as human” is crucial in a context where big tech aims to control the future of so-called humanity and the AI race closes the gap between human and machine communications.
About the speaker
Armond R. Towns is an associate professor in Communication and Media Studies at Carleton University. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Communication. His research brings together Black studies, cultural studies, and media philosophy. His book, On Black Media Philosophy, was published in 2022 with the University of California Press. He is also the co-founder and inaugural editor of the journal, Communication and Race. Currently, he is developing a project on the relationship between the history of communication studies and the history of Black studies, focusing specifically on the development of both fields in U.S. and Canada.
About the respondent
Tolulope Awobusuyi is an environmental software consultant and PhD student in Geography and Environmental Management. His research looks at the relationship between visual culture and Blackness, primarily through photography and film, and how Black spatiality is produced in media at the narrative level. He is also interested in the philosophies and epistemologies of design practice, particularly in technology and media.