The all-day conference will be capped off by an evening keynote address by Siva Vaidhyanathan, a cultural historian and media scholar who is Associate Professor of Media Studies and Law at the University of Virginia. Prof. Vaidhyanathan is the author of Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How it Threatens Creativity (2001) and The Anarchist in the Library: How the Clash at 6:30 PM between Freedom and Control is Hacking the Real World and Crashing the System (2004). He is currently working on a new book, The Googlization of Everything.

Professor Vaidhyanathan’s keynote address, entitled “‘The Classroom is Sacred’: Digitization Without Commercialization”, addresses the myriad challenges facing university faculty, administrators and students in finding the best ways to embrace emerging digital technologies to improve teaching, research and learning without giving in to commercial pressures or arguments about efficiency or cost savings. Prof. Vaidhyanathan will suggest that we approach the implementation of academic technologies in the classroom with a sense of experimentation and modesty.

The talk will begin at 6:30 PM in the Graduate Center’s Recital Hall and is open to the general public.