Words in Edgewise: Janna Rosales

Janna Rosales -- Schmaltz or Sentinel? The Future of Nostalgia

Despite the return of vinyl records, skinny jeans, plaid shirts, and big glasses, is there really any room to long for "what was" in a forward-looking, wired-up society whose very essence is change? Vintage and retro might be "in", but what really becomes of nostalgia, that longing for home and for what used to be? Once classified as a genuine medical ailment, and then recast as innocuous ambles down memory lane, nostalgia is now a prepackaged commodity, a fixture in the pop culture marketplace, from Mad Men to My Little Pony. This presentation will engage its audience in a conversation about the cultural aesthetic of nostalgia by asking, does the past have any value in a society whose eye seems so firmly set on the future?

St. John's native Janna Rosales attended Memorial University where she studied both the arts and sciences, receiving a BA in religious studies and a minor in earth sciences. She followed that with a Master of Arts in environmental ethics, and then moved to Toronto to pursue a PhD with a dissertation that studied the social and ethical implications of nanotechnology. Among her other research interests are transhumanism, food security, cradle-to-cradle design, deliberative democracy models, and contemplative education. She is currently a Research Associate with the Faculty of Engineering at Memorial where she is doing research on integrative engineering education. When she's not thinking and writing about the promise and perils of revolutionary technology she also likes to teach chocolate-tasting workshops, sing in three local choirs, hike the East Coast Trail and periodically launch herself off short ledges in pursuit of the perfect jump-shot photo.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Janna Rosales
• Words in Edgewise
• St. John's
• March 2011
• Schmaltz or Sentinel?
• The Future of Nostalgia
• nostalgia
• internet
• technology
• philosophy
• lecture