100 Years of Media – 100 Years of Cultures on the Move

An Interdisciplinary Humanities Conference

Sponsored by the Global Communication Program and the Peggy & Marc Spiegel Center for Global and International Studies at Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island, this symposium addresses the relationship of Media to the Global Diaspora. The symposium focuses primarily on the migrations of the past 100 years and how the “living traditions” transmitted by these communities are continually subject to loss, gain and interpretation. Media developed during this same period play a role, both direct and indirect, in this process as these traditions become transplanted into their “new home.”

The symposium has the following objectives:

• To encourage academic discourse focused on transnational migratory populations and the role new media plays in transmitting and sustaining their living traditions.
• To create a forum for researchers in the liberal arts and other disciplines studying the nature, significance and consequence of global migration
• To provide a concert performance of traditional music and dance illustrating the vitality of these living traditions.

We envision this symposium as a celebration of global communication, the liberal arts, and Roger Williams University's mission to “bridge the world.”

* Definitions

New Media -- Essentially modern media, those media technologies that have emerged with the advent of electricity: radio, television, recording, broadcasting, computers, the Internet and the Web and more.

Global Diaspora -- People have been migrating since the dawn of humanity. However, during the past 100-150 years these diaspora have been recorded, documented and analyzed for their economic, political and cultural impact.

Symposium -- A less formal, more intimate gathering of peers and colleagues in a congenial environment for dialogue and discussion on a particular topic. The model comes from Plato's Symposium.