“Looking Back on Marx/Moving Forward with Marxism:
Marxism and Communication Studies in the 21st Century”

National Communication Association (NCA) Preconvention Seminar Conference. 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Wednesday, November 10, 2004. Chicago Hilton Towers, Chicago, IL

Marxism’s relationship to communication as a discipline has long been marked by a profound ambivalence. On the one hand, notions derived from Marxist theory -­“ideology,” “hegemony”, “reification”, “commodification,” “social class,”“dialectics” etc.-- are regularly deployed in the pages of the NCA’s journals and are foundational for entire subfields such as cultural studies. Moreover, a growing number of communication scholars explicitly identify themselves as Marxists or at least see their work as indebted to the Marxist legacy. On the other hand, extended, informed discussions of Marxist theory and the unique insights it affords are all but invisible at NCA’s annual meeting and in its publications. And a glance at most rhetoric and mass communications textbooks reveals that the approach receives little or no attention in most undergraduate courses.

Northeast Gathering for Autonomy

Hartford, Connecticut, Feb. 28-29, 2004

In response to the recent "Draft Proposal for a Continental Network,"
we're calling for a gathering with the purpuse of creating a network of
groups, organizations, and individuals who believe in Self-Determination,
Equality, Decentralized Organizing, Direct Democracy and Autonomy, and who
oppose and fight White Supremacy, Patriarchy, Heterosexism, Oppression and
Exploitation in all its forms.

NortheastAutonomy

Agenda and discussion will be plenary. This network will be whatever YOU
make it. Please send representatives from your groups, representing
whatever number of people you're comfortable with, just for space's sake.
However, full groups and individual nonrepresentatives are welcomed as
well. Come to Hartford with ideas for projects and such that can be
discussed and pursued at the gathering.

University of Hartford

West Hartford, CT

Gengras Student Union

February 28-29, 2004

solidarity,

m(A)tt

860-416-4575

Email: circleAmatt@riseup.net

Pacific Center for Technology and Culture Opens, Vancouver

We are pleased to announce the opening of the Pacific Centre for
Technology and Culture. Located at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, the
Pacific Centre for Technology and Culture (PACTAC) is conceived as a
unique interdisciplinary institute for researching and teaching
issues related to the impact of technological change on culture,
politics and society. Simultaneously a centre of global intellectual
exchange and an innovative and collaborative site for exploring the
digital future, PACTAC approaches the question of technology from
perspectives which are interdisciplinary in scope, critical in
sensibility, and creative, experimental and immersive in method.