What's happening to The Humanities in the Information Age? Patrick Brantlinger will present a keynote address on this question at a conference at University of Massachusetts, Lowell, on April 2, 2003. Brantlinger has studied the social phenomenon of mass culture and literacy for over two decades. He writes about the death of Shakespeare in modern humanities studies, as well as the Victorian fear that mass literacy would lead to the downfall of Western Civilization as people lay about reading novels, prompting them to engage in scandalous behavior, or at least fantasize about doing so.

Brantlinger's perceptions may be particularly relevant to cultural studies today, where it is sometimes argued that TV, video games, and the Internet have turned us into vulturish voyeurs, sucking entertainment out of the virtual life in Jerry Springer and Survivor, Sega Games and Sony Playstations, Weblogs and Webcams. Is there an elitist bias to such criticism, or are we really on the verge of cultural meltdown this time?

Brantlinger is Rudy Professor of English at Indiana University. His works include The Reading Lesson: The Threat of Mass Literacy in Victorian England and Who Killed Shakespeare?: What's Happened to English since the Sixties. You can learn more about the symposium here.