MIT Comparative Media Studies/Writing

A Reading with Poet Laureate Arthur Sze

05 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

This reading, part of MIT’s William Corbett Poetry Series, welcomes former U.S. Poet Laureate Arthur Sze back to the campus where he began his liter...

"Pomegranate" reading and discussion, with the book's author Helen Elaine Lee

04 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The acclaimed author of "The Serpent’s Gift", Helen Elaine Lee, returns with this poetic and powerful journey of healing and autonomy. About the Bo...

Bernard Geoghegan, “Learning to Code: From Information Theory to French Theory”

09 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How and why, in the latter half of the twentieth century, did informatic theories of “code” developed around cybernetics and information theory ta...

Francesca Bolla Tripodi, “The Propagandists’ Playbook”

28 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Propagandists’ Playbook: How Conservative Elites Manipulate Search and Threaten Democracy peels back the layers of the right-wing media manipula...

Lupe Fiasco presents “Rap Theory & Practice: an Introduction”

05 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

An exploration into the underlying fundamental functions, structures, and principles of rap. Open to the public, the talk was hosted at MIT on Novembe...

Resilient Witnessing In The Face Of Human Rights Abuses, Distrust, And Deepfakes

06 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Sam Gregory is Director of Programs, Strategy & Innovation at WITNESS, which helps people use video and technology to protect human rights; studies re...

The Forensic Citizen Learning From The Past, Preparing For The Future

06 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

William Uricchio is Professor of Comparative Media Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and founder of the MIT Open Documentary Lab, w...

The Long & Ambiguous (pre)history Of Audiovisual In The Black Experience

06 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Full title: “Between freedom & oppression: The long & ambiguous (pre)history of audiovisual in the Black experience” Featuring Chakanetsa Mavhung...

The Whole World Is Watching How 1968 Helps Us Frame The Present

06 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Heather Hendershot's opening plenary from the "Bearing Witness, Seeking Justice" conference, with initial remarks by Dean Agustín Rayo and ...

Moving Images In Absentia Courtroom Looking In The Age Of Hyper - Mediation

05 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Kelli Moore is an Assistant Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University who examines how media and technology produce legal ...

Mary Beth Meehan and Fred Turner, “Seeing Silicon Valley”

05 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Video also available at https://cms.mit.edu/video-seeing-silicon-valley-mary-beth-meehan-fred-turner. Acclaimed photographer Mary Beth Meehan and Sil...

Charles North - The William Corbett Poetry Series 01

21 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Charles North has published twelve books 
of poems, three books of critical prose, and collaborations with artists and other poets. With James Schuy...

Saving the News: Why the Constitution Calls for Government Action to Preserve Freedom of Speech

15 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In her 2021 book Saving the News: Why the Constitution Calls for Government Action to Preserve Freedom of Speech, our guest Martha Minow “outlines a...

Oscar Winberg, "Archie Bunker Goes to Washington"

11 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This talk reconsiders the role of television entertainment in American political life in the 1970s and beyond. Focusing on the situation comedy All in...

Jens Pohlmann, "Platform Regulation and the Digital Public Sphere"

01 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this talk, Jens Pohlmann compares the discourse about the regulation of social media platforms and its effect on freedom of expression in Germany a...

“Our Ancestors Did Not Breathe This Air”, Six Muslim Women in STEM

31 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

These six poets met as undergrads at MIT, brought together by the many things they shared: the challenges of being women in STEM, their lifelong pursu...

Racquel Gates, “Reintroducing Melvin Van Peebles”

18 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this talk, Racquel Gates presents her experience working as consulting producer on the Criterion release of Melvin Van Peebles: Essential Films. A...

Katherine Jewell, "Party City: WMBR, Institutional Change, and Democratic Media"

11 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

College radio has long been known as the weird, wacky signals on the left of the FM dial offering music that would never be mainstream. But this wasn’...

David Thorburn: William Corbett Poetry Series

03 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

David Thorburn has been a teacher of literature for 57 years, 46 of them at MIT where he is Professor of Literature and Comparative Media and Director...

Jorge Caraballo, “How to Use Audio Storytelling to Cultivate a Community and Keep it Engaged”

18 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Podcasts are in a golden age and are being used to effectively communicate new ideas, tell compelling stories, and build highly participative communit...

Eric Freedman, "Non-Binary Binaries and Unreal MetaHumans"

11 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Video game engines have promoted a new cultural economy for software production and have provided a common architecture for digital content creation a...

Lynn Nottage’s "By the Way, Meet Vera Stark" and the Making of Black Women’s Film History

04 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Lynn Nottage’s 2011 satirical play By the Way, Meet Vera Stark stages the life and legacy of the fictional Vera Stark, a Black maid and struggling a...

Uplifting Us: Design Opportunities in Centering Racialized Experiences in Games

10 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Transcript and video available at https://cms.mit.edu/video-alexandra-to-design-opportunities-centering-racialized-experiences-game. People of color ...

Craig Robertson, “The Filing Cabinet and the Gendering of Information Work”

18 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this talk, Craig Robertson provides a brief overview of the some of the themes of his recent book, The Filing Cabinet: A Vertical History of Inform...

Graphic Materiality, Trauma, and Expressionist Comics: Artist’s Talk With Leela Corman

04 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Graphic novel creator Leela Corman talk's and Q&A about her graphic novels and short comics on the topics of generational and personal trauma, New Yor...

Edward Schiappa, "The Transgender Exigency: The Role of Media Representation"

29 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This presentation defines the phrase “transgender exigency” as a situation marked by an urgent need; in this case, the need to address the politic...

Memorial Colloquium for Professor Jing Wang

21 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Video and transcript available at https://cms.mit.edu/video-memorial-colloquium-in-honor-of-jing-wang ====== Professor Jing Wang — a beloved longti...

Nick Thurston, "Document Practices: The Art of Propagating Access"

14 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This talk introduces arguments and examples from Nick Thurston’s current book project, Document Practices, which explores aesthetic and political fr...

Educated Viewers: Civic Spectatorship, Media Literacy, and American Schools

30 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this talk, Victoria Cain provides a brief overview of some of the themes of her new book, Schools and Screens: A Watchful History, and a deeper div...

Sulafa Zidani, “Messy on the Inside: Internet Memes as Mapping Tools of Everyday Life”

22 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With the proliferation of social media, internet memes have become a ubiquitous part of everyday communication. However, the power of memes cannot be ...

Sandra Rodriguez, "Creating and Interacting with Virtual Entities"

19 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Video and transcript: https://cms.mit.edu/video-sandra-rodriguez-creating-interacting-virtual-entities-vr-ai-human-experiences/ Drawing from recent c...

Jonathan Sterne, "Diminished Vocalities: On Prostheses and Abilities"

24 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Video and transcript: https://cms.mit.edu/video-jonathan-sterne-diminished-vocalities-on-prostheses-and-abilities/ In this talk, Jonathan Sterne prov...

Promotional Narratives, Science Fiction, and the Case for Mars Colonization

06 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Video and transcript: https://cms.mit.edu/video-james-wynn-promotional-narratives-mars-colonization. Given the enormous impact that colonialism has h...

Measuring Equity-Promoting Behaviors in Digital Teaching Simulations: A Topic Modeling Approach

12 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Digital simulations offer learning opportunities to engage and reflect on systemic issues of racism and structural violence against communities of col...

Charisse L’Pree: "What is a Media Psychography? A 20-year Methodological Journey"

23 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What is your relationship with media technologies? When we say things like “I love television,” “I hate the internet,” or “I can’t live wi...

Reworking the Archive: The Southeast Chicago Archive and Storytelling Project

04 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What are some unexplored ways that online environments can help us rethink “the archive”? How might i-doc storytelling tools expand what an archiv...

#BlackInTheIvory: Academia’s Role in Institutional Racism

03 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

https://commforum.mit.edu/blackintheivory-academias-role-in-institutional-racism-96af14c37f5f For many Black scientists and researchers, working in a...

BORDERx: A Crisis In Graphic Detail

20 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In 2018, the United States enacted a “zero tolerance” policy which criminalized the act of seeking asylum. In June 2019, the inhumane conditions i...

Beyond the Living Dead: Treasures from the George A. Romero Archive

12 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Warning: contains spoilers and strong language. With his 1968 debut Night of the Living Dead, George A. Romero helped to inaugurate a new era of both...

Patricia Saulis, “Two-Eyed Seeing in Environmental Justice and Media”

05 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Two-eyed seeing has been a contemporary concept by two Indigenous Mikmaq Elders in Cape Breton Canada. Through the use of Indigenous Oral Tradition, ...

Lana Swartz, "New Money: How Payment Became Social Media"

29 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Lana Swartz, ’09, is joined by Aswin Punathambekar, ’03, to discuss Swartz’s new book New Money: How Payment Became Social Media (Yale Universit...

Media Distortions: Understanding the Power Behind Spam, Noise, and Other Deviant Media

22 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Media Distortions is about the power behind producing deviant media categories. It shows the politics behind categories we take for granted such as sp...

Race and Representation of Syrian, Palestinian, and Norwegian Refugees in the News

16 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This talk will discuss contemporary US feelings towards Syrian and Palestinian refugee resettlement and expectations for “appropriate” refugee att...

Eric Gordon, "Towards a Meaningfully Inefficient Smart City"

07 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Mainstream “smart” city discourse offers a technocentric, efficiency-driven utopian fantasy that elides or exacerbates many urban problems of the ...

Jing Wang, "Walking Around Obstacles: Nonconfrontational Activists In Gray China"

02 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Is there digital activism in China? What is it like to be an activist running a grassroots NGO in a land of censors? Is the state-public relationship ...

Justin Reich, "Failure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can’t Transform Education"

25 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In the 2000s and 2010s, education technology evangelists promised that new learning media would transform schooling and education. Then, a pandemic sh...

Kishonna Gray, "Exploring the Black Cultural Production of Gamers in Transmediated Culture"

16 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

With this presentation, Dr. Kishonna Gray illustrates a framework for studying the intersectional development of technological artifacts and systems a...

Shawna Kidman: "The Infrastructure of the U.S. Comic Book Industry"

06 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This talk discusses the history of the American comic book industry during the 20th century. This medium has dominated the film and television landsca...

Marina Bers, “Coding in Early Childhood: Storytelling or Puzzle Solving?”

28 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Computer programming is an essential skill in the 21st century and new policies and frameworks are in place for preparing students for computer scienc...

Desmond Upton Patton: “Contextual Analysis of Social Media”

21 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

While natural language processing affords researchers an opportunity to automatically scan millions of social media posts, there is growing concern th...

Creative Agency: Making, Learning, and Playing towards Understanding Computational Content

14 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

People often learn complex computational content most easily and deeply when they have “creative agency” – the social network, ability, skills, ...

Can Journalists Save the Planet?

02 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The Amazon is burning. Coral reefs are dying. Glaciers are melting, and as Earth gets pushed to its brink, journalists who can translate the impact of...

Eric Klopfer: "Design Based Research on Participatory Simulations"

15 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

An important part of the work done at the The Education Arcade is based on a process of Design Based Research (DBR). In DBR, we design products that a...

Lucy Suchman: "Artificial Intelligence and Modern Warfare"

08 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In June of 2018, following a campaign initiated by activist employees within the company, Google announced its intention not to renew a US Defense Dep...

William Uricchio: "Why Co-Create? And Why Now? Reports from A Field Study"

24 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Co-Creation is picking up steam as a claim, aspiration, and buzz-word du jour. But what is and why does it matter? Drawing on a just-released field st...

If I Could Reach the Border…

18 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Vivek Bald, Associate Professor of Writing and Digital Media, reads from a new essay that uses a teenage encounter with police and the justice system ...

Anushka Shah: "How Entertainment Can Help Fix the System"

15 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Around the world, citizens are saying the system is broken. If it’s education and schools one day, it’s healthcare the next. Our trust in politics...

Nick Montfort: "Poet/Programmers, Artist/Programmers, and Scholar/Programmers”

27 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Computer programming is a general-purpose way of using computation. It can be instrumental (oriented toward a predefined end, as with the development ...

Christopher Weaver: “Amplius Ludo, Beyond the Horizon”

16 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

While the appeal of games may be universal and satisfy our innate desire to play, the powerful dynamics that govern our behavior within games is even ...

Plenary 2: Digital Technologies and Cultures

18 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In 1998, MIT’s Comparative Media Studies program held the first Media in Transition (MiT) conference and inaugurated a related book series. Research...

Remarks By Conference Planning Committee Member Professor Lisa Parks

18 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In 1998, MIT’s Comparative Media Studies program held the first Media in Transition (MiT) conference and inaugurated a related book series. Research...

Plenary 1: Culture Industries

17 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Plenary 1: Culture Industries by Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Haidee Wasson, "Do-it Yourself Cinema: Portable Film Projectors as Media History"

18 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Hosted with MIT Arts, Culture, and Technology and The Boston Cinema/Media Seminar. Introduction by Lisa Parks, Professor, CMS/W Haidee Wasson’s ta...

Civic Arts Series: Lauren Boyle, “Thumbs Type and Swipe”

11 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Introduction by Amy Rosenblum Martín, Independent Curator and Educator, Guggenheim DIS (est. 2010) is a New York-based collective composed of Laure...

The Battle of Algiers as Ghost Archive - Specters of a Muslim International

04 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The Battle of Algiers, a 1966 film that poetically captures Algerian resistance to French colonial occupation, is widely considered one of the greates...

An Evening with Comedienne Cameron Esposito

03 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Comedienne Cameron Esposito delights audiences with a short comedy set followed by Q&A about Rape Jokes, her standup comedy special about sexual assau...

Gaming the Iron Curtain: Computer Games in Communist Czechoslovakia as Entertainment and Activism

20 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Based on the recent book Gaming the Iron Curtain, this lecture will outline the idiosyncratic and surprising ways in which computer hobbyists in Cold ...

Social Media Entertainment

15 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In a little over a decade, competing social media platforms, including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat, and their Chinese counterp...

Dispatches from The Golden Age of Audio

05 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Podcasting has given rise to new voices and new, highly personal ways to tell stories. But as the medium expands, it struggles to create gold standard...

“The Good Stuff”: The Intersections of Work, Leisure, and Relational Bonding on Tumblr and Patreon

28 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Although the Pokémon GO phenomenon of 2016 has waned, the economies of internet fame and content production remains robust. Drawing from their disser...

Caren Kaplan: "Bringing the War Home"

21 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

At the close of the First Gulf War, feminist architectural historian Beatriz Colomina wrote that “war today speaks about the difficulty of establish...

The Language of Civic Life: Past to Present

28 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

When everyday citizens interact about politics today, they often do so (1) anonymously and (2) in digital space, which results in a kind of aggressive...

Civic Arts Series: Myron Dewey, "Protecting the Water in Solidarity and Unity"

19 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Myron Dewey is an indigenous journalist, educator, documentary filmmaker and the developer of Digital Smoke Signals, a social networking and filmmakin...

The Consequences of America’s Miracle Machine

13 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In the 20th century, America led the world in scientific and technological innovation, with federally funded basic research leading to breakthroughs r...

Brian Michael Bendis - The 2018 Julius Schwartz Lecture at MIT

11 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

[Video and photos available at https://cmswm.it/bendis-mit] MIT Comparative Media Studies/Writing is thrilled to welcome award-winning comics creator...

2018 CMS Alumni Panel: Nick Seaver, Colleen Kaman, and Sean Flynn

31 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

On the heels of the day’s graduate program information session, join us for our annual colloquium featuring alumni of CMS, discussing their lives fr...

#MoreThanCode: Practitioner-led Research to Reimagine Technology for Social Justice

26 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Our society is in the midst of an extremely urgent conversation about the benefits and harms of digital technology, across all spheres of life. Unfort...

Civic Arts Series: Marisa Morán Jahn

19 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Marisa Morán Jahn is a multi-media artist, writer, educator and activist, whose colorful, often humorous uses of personae and media create imaginativ...

What’s So Funny About Oppressive Regimes?

18 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

== An MIT Communications Forum == As a senior producer on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Trevor Noah, Sara Taksler has spent her career taking c...

How To Fight A Nazi

10 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

An MIT Communications Forum Christian Picciolini was 14 when he became a Neo-Nazi skinhead. He denounced eight years later and dedicated himself to h...

Civic Arts Series - Daniel Bacchieri

04 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Daniel Bacchieri is an award-winning Brazilian journalist, documentary film maker and collaborative web developer/curator, whose visually inspiring St...

Collective Intelligence

28 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

CAST Visiting Artist Agnieszka Kurant joins Stefan Helmreich, professor of Anthropology; Caroline Jones, professor of History, Theory and Criticism of...

Thomas Allen Harris: “Collective Wisdom” Keynote

19 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Thomas Allen Harris is a critically acclaimed, interdisciplinary artist who explores conceptions of family, identity, environmentalism, and spirituali...

Civic Arts Series: Erik Loyer

13 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

== Co-hosted with the MIT Program in Art, Culture, and Technology == Erik Loyer‘s award-winning work explores new blends of game dynamics, poetic e...

Imperial Arrangements: South African Apartheid and the Force of Photography

11 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

This talk by Kimberly Juanita Brown considers the prominence of graphic photographic images during the decades of apartheid in South Africa. Specifica...

Bunk and the History of Hoaxes with Kevin Young

30 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Before fake news dominated headlines, Kevin Young was tracking down its roots. The author of 13 books of poetry and prose, poetry editor for The N...

Between Participation and Control: A Long History of CCTV

27 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Closed-circuit television (CCTV) has become synonymous with surveillance society and the widespread use of media technologies for contemporary regimes...

Republican Resistance in the Age of Trump

17 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Stuart Stevens believes Republicans are in a “GOP apocalypse,” and he’s urging Republicans to resist. Stevens is a Republican political consulta...

The City Talks: Storytelling at the New York Times's Metro Desk

13 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

As attention spans shrink and the representation of factual information is under scrutiny by the public, news organizations need clear, engaging story...

Youth And Privacy In The Americas

09 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

== Mariel García Montes: "Youth and Privacy in the Americas" == How do youth allies promote young people’s critical thinking on privacy, in inform...

Intimate Worlds - Reading For Intimate Affects In Contemporary Video Games

09 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

== Kaelan Doyle-Myerscough: "Intimate Worlds: Reading for Intimate Affects in Contemporary Video Games" == Leveraging affect theory and video game st...

When To Start Freaking Out - Audience Engagement On Social Media During Disease Outbreaks

09 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

== Aashka Dave: "When to Start Freaking Out: Audience Engagement on Social Media During Disease Outbreaks" == How do perceptions of risk contribute t...

The Motives Of Narrative And Style In Food Text Creation On Social Media

09 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

== Vicky Zeamer: "Internet Killed the Michelin Star: The Motives of Narrative and Style in Food Text Creation on Social Media" == Food porn has becom...

Music Fandom and the Shaping of Online Culture

06 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

From the earliest days of networked computing, music fans were there, shaping the technologies and cultures that emerged online. By the time musicians...

The Tip of the Iceberg: Sound Studies and the Future of Afrofuturism

09 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Iconic developments in the artistic and intellectual ethos known as Afrofuturism are closely linked to music: Sun Ra’s experimental jazz, Parliament...

Designing for a Neurodiverse World

02 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

An MIT Communications Forum: https://commforum.mit.edu/neurodiversity-at-mit-and-design-for-everyone-march-1-2018-f7886ba92b61 The world is a neurolo...

The (Non)Americans: Tracking and Analyzing Russian Influence Operations on Twitter

02 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In late 2017, Twitter and Facebook revealed that agents backed by the Russian government had infiltrated American political conversations for years. P...

ICTs for Refugees and Displaced Persons

23 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Expanding use of information and communication technology (ICT) together with the humanitarian reform agenda are changing both the experience of being...

Eric Klopfer: "From Augmented to Virtual Learning"

09 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Mixed realities that combine digital and real experiences are now becoming a true reality. These experiences are being delivered over smartphones as ...

Has Silicon Valley Lost Its Humanity?

04 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Silicon Valley innovations have given rise to a class of tech titans wielding immense economic and political influence and has paved the way for a cul...