“Conscience For The Tech World” MIT Professor Sherry Turkle Wins USC Annenberg’s Everett M. Rogers Award

Often referred to as “the Margaret Mead of digital culture,” and called a “conscience for the tech world” by novelist Jonathan Franzen in the New York Times Book Review, Professor Turkle studies the effects on human relationships of digital technology, including the personal computer, social networks, mobile connectivity and artificial intelligence. She has described technology as the “architect of our intimacies,” and her work has explored how digital communication devices affect the ways we understand ourselves, relate to others and experience our humanity.

The award honors the late Everett M. Rogers, a professor at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism who originated diffusion of innovation theory and introduced the term “early adopters.” Presented since 2007 on behalf of USC Annenberg by its Norman Lear Center, the award recognizes outstanding scholars and practitioners whose work has made a fundamental contribution to areas of Rogers’s legacy.

On Thursday, April 6, 2017 at 5 PM, Professor Turkle will speak on “The Assault on Empathy; the Need for Conversation” at the USC Annenberg School, followed by a reception. The event is free and open to the public, but an RSVP is required (RSVP here).

Sherry Turkle is the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the founder and director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self. She received a joint doctorate in sociology and personality psychology from Harvard and is a licensed clinical psychologist. She is a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, a Rockefeller Humanities Fellowship and the Harvard Centennial Medal, and she is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Science. She was named “Woman of the Year” by Ms. Magazine and among the “forty under forty” who are changing the nation by Esquire Magazine. Her newest book is the New York Times bestseller, Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age.

The Norman Lear Center is a multidisciplinary research and public policy center studying and shaping the impact of entertainment and media on society. From its base in the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, the Lear Center builds bridges between faculty who study aspects of entertainment, media and culture. Beyond campus, it bridges the gap between entertainment industry and academia, and between them and the public. For more information, visit www.learcenter.org.

Located in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California, the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism (annenberg.usc.edu) is a national leader in education and scholarship in the fields of communication, journalism, public diplomacy and public relations. With an enrollment of more than 2,200 students, USC Annenberg offers doctoral, graduate and undergraduate degree programs, as well as continuing development programs for working professionals across a broad scope of academic inquiry. The school’s comprehensive curriculum emphasizes the core skills of leadership, innovation, service and entrepreneurship and draws upon the resources of a networked university located in the media capital of the world.