“Beyond True and False: Facts, Fictions, Fakes”
Presenter: Anna Maria Lorusso, Full Professor, Department of the Arts, University of Bologna
Respondent: Kenzell Huggins, PhD Candidate, Anthropology, University of Chicago
May 13nd, 3:30–5:00, Cobb 311
Anna Maria Lorusso – Beyond True and False: Facts, Fictions, Fakes
The paper password is provided through the Mass Culture listserv.
Anna Maria Lorusso is full professor in the Department of Arts of Bologna University, where she teaches Semiotics, Semiotics of Culture and Analysis of Information. From 2017 until 2021 she was President of the Italian Association of Semiotics. She has been working for many years on the theoretical legacy of Umberto Eco, with whom she studied and worked. Her research is focused now on Semiotics of culture, with two main fields of research:
– logic of information (post-truth, fake news etc..)
-and cultural memory
She was Principal Investigator of the UE MarieCurie project “SPEME – Questioning Traumatic Heritage. Spaces of Memory in Europe, Argentina, Colombia”, in collaboration with UBA, Buenos Aires (Argentina), Universidad Nacional de Bogotà (Colombia), University of Amsterdam (Netherlands). And before this one, she worked in the coordination unit of the UE project “MEMOSUR _A Lesson for Europe: Memory, Trauma and Reconciliation in Chile and Argentina”, in collaboration with Universidad Nacional de Cordoba (Argentina), Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Nottingham University (UK).
Among her last publications: Cultural Semiotics (London, Palgrave-MacMillan, 2016; Post-verità. Fra reality tv, social media e storytelling, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2018; L’utilità del senso comune, Bologna, il Mulino, 2022.
Kenzell Huggins is a PhD Candidate in Anthropology at the University of Chicago. His dissertation examines the production of film and television in Singapore. The project explores the values attached to developing film and television production in a place historically perceived to be at the peripheries of global media production. These issues are analyzed through the conceptual lens of animation, understanding media production as the semiotic construction of life. Kenzell’s second project expands these same topics to gaming in Singapore, examining the place of play in a country known for pragmatism and efficiency. Kenzell’s methodological interests include collaborative and virtual ethnography, and he has worked on topics including community-engaged ecological projects and commercial logistics through collaborative work.