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Category: Digital Revolution

Highlights from the Kluge Center’s 2023 Events

Posted by: Andrew Breiner

In 2023, the John W. Kluge Center continued its work bringing scholars, writers, and lawmakers to the Library of Congress for public programming that informs, entertains, and shines a spotlight on the collections of the Library. With 2023 behind us, we’ve collected some of our favorite events we’ve hosted in the last year, all available …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

Of Astronettes and Parastronauts

Posted by: Andrew Breiner

This is a guest post by Sheri Wells-Jensen, Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology, Exploration, and Scientific Innovation at the Kluge Center. Wells-Jensen is Associate Professor in the Department of English at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. A linguist with research interests in phonetics, braille, language creation, and disability …

A Movie Mystery at the Kluge Center

Posted by: Sophia Zahner

It started with a sneeze, or so we thought. Since the 1950s, film historians counted “The Sneeze” from 1894 as the earliest surviving film copyrighted in the United States. At this time, the film began being shown as a motion picture after being copied back to film from a photograph. Claudy Op den Kamp, a …

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How the Lowly Answering Machine Contributed to our Culture of Continuous Communication

Posted by: Janna Deitz

Josh Lauer is a 2019 Digital Studies Fellow at the John W. Kluge Center as well as Associate Professor of Communication at the University of New Hampshire. His research interests include the history of communication technologies as well as consumer credit reporting, the topic of his 2017 book “Creditworthy: A History of Consumer Surveillance and …

A 16th Century Codex Tells a Story of Resistance to Colonial Rule

Posted by: Sophia Zahner

Jay I. Kislak Chair Barbara E. Mundy is an art historian whose scholarship explores zones of contact between Native peoples and settler colonists as they forged new visual cultures in the Americas. She is Donald and Martha Robertson Chair in Latin American Art History at Tulane University, Senior Fellow of Pre-Columbian Studies at Dumbarton Oaks, …

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Steve Swayne Joins John W. Kluge Center as Chair in Modern Culture

Posted by: Andrew Breiner

The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress is pleased to announce the appointment of Steve Swayne as Chair in Modern Culture. Swayne, who began his residency in March, is working with the Library’s David Diamond Collection to produce a book on the life and work of the influential 20th century American composer. …

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Kluge Center Welcomes Elizabeth Currid-Halkett into Residence

Posted by: Andrew Breiner

Kluge Center Welcomes Elizabeth Currid-Halkett into Residence USC Price School of Public Policy Professor Elizabeth Currid-Halkett has been appointed as the Kluge Chair in Modern Culture at the John W. Kluge Center. She will begin her term in June 2022. This appointment is awarded to a scholar of significant accomplishment in modern arts and media …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

Kluge Center Welcomes New Chairs in Residence

Posted by: Andrew Breiner

Four scholars holding chair positions at the Kluge Center began their terms in residence in September 2021. These positions are filled by invitation of the Librarian of Congress and scholars enjoy individual offices in the Jefferson Building, where they engage in writing and research and interact with other scholars in residence. Keep reading to get …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

Thérèse Bonney: Curator, Photographer, Syndicator, Spy

Posted by: Andrew Breiner

This is a guest post by Kluge Center Research Assistant Sophia Zahner, an interview with 2021 Kluge Fellow Caroline Riley. Riley is also a Research Associate at the University of California, Davis. Sophia Zahner: How did you become interested in the photography of Thérèse Bonney? How does it relate to your other research projects? Caroline …