MIT Humor Series: HEBEN NIGATU (BuzzFeed's Another Round podcast), in conversation with MERYL ALPER and KISHONNA GRAY

When:
Wednesday, May 10, 2017 5:00p -
6:30p

Where:
MIT Media Lab, 6th floor lecture hall (E14-633)
75 Amherst St
Cambridge, MA 02139

EventScheduled OfflineEventAttendanceMode

Admission:
FREE

Categories:
Art, Innovation, Lectures & Conferences, Performing Arts, Social Good, Tech, University

Event website:
https://www.facebook.com/events/911218039019984/

The ONLINE HUMOR CONVERSATION SERIES AT MIT brings online comedians in conversation with academics and researchers to discuss humor's influence on online culture and society. Presented by @jonnysun.


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HEBEN NIGATU (BuzzFeed's Another Round podcast), in conversation with MERYL ALPER and KISHONNA GRAY.


Heben Nigatu, the co-host of BuzzFeed’s wildly popular Another Round podcast ("A cultural phenomenon" --The Atlantic), speaks with Dr. Meryl Alper (author, Giving Voice: Mobile Communication, Disability, and Inequality, MIT Press 2017) and Dr. Kishonna Gray (author, Race, Gender, & Deviance in Xbox Live, Routledge 2014) about the cultural phenomenon of Another Round, creating space for underrepresented voices on online platforms and the podcasting landscape, Vine, #carefreeblackkids2k16 and sharing black joy, podcasts as journalism, speaking with Hilary Clinton, and using humor to talk about feminism, depression, anxiety, race, and racism. Moderated by Jonny Sun (internet comedian and MIT PhD student).


Moderated by Jonny Sun.


Wednesday, May 10. 5:00pm-6:30pm. MIT Media Lab, E14 Lecture Hall (E14-633) on the sixth floor. 75 Amherst St, Cambridge.


Free and open to the public. Please note that RSVP-ing does not guarantee entry and that seating is on a first-come-first-served basis.


This event will be live-streamed through Periscope at @MITHumorSeries.


This talk generously funded by the MIT De Florez Fund for Humor and the MIT DUSP Students of Color Committee, in association with the MIT Media Lab's MIT Center for Civic Media, and co-sponsored by the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.


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UPCOMING EVENTS


WEDNESDAY, MAY 10. Heben Nigatu (BuzzFeed’s Another Round podcast) in conversation with Meryl Alper and Kishonna Gray. Moderated by Jonny Sun. This event is also sponsored by the DUSP Student of Color Committee. 5-6:30pm. MIT Media Lab. E14-633.
https://www.facebook.com/events/911218039019984/


THURSDAY, MAY 11. Dylan Marron (of Welcome to Night Vale, Seriously.tv) in conversation with Jonny Sun and Ethan Zuckerman. Humor in media-activism for underrepresented and marginalized communities. This event is also sponsored by the DUSP Student Council. 5-6:30pm. MIT Media Lab. E14-633.
https://www.facebook.com/events/205433559966412/


MONDAY, MAY 15. Nathan Zed (@nathanzed), in conversation with Kishonna Gray and Jonny Sun. On black cultural production online. This event is also sponsored by the DUSP Student of Color Committee. 5-6:30pm. MIT Media Lab. E14-633.
https://www.facebook.com/events/458932864457628/


THURSDAY, MAY 18. The comedians behind the Tax March: Maura Quint (New Yorker, McSweeney's, Rolling Stone) and Frank Lesser (writer, The Colbert Report) in conversation with Jonny Sun. On the relationship between humor and protest. This event is also sponsored by DUSP. 5-6:30pm. MIT Media Lab. E14-633.
https://www.facebook.com/events/1893749320892932/


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ABOUT OUR GUESTS


Heben Nigatu is a writer, comedian, and America’s Foremost Public Intellectual. She is the co-host of the podcast Another Round, which has been called the “Beyoncé of podcasts” by a human who is definitely not her. She is also a former writer for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. She brings her love of Vines (R.I.P.) and knowledge of issues of race, gender, media and pop culture to all of her work and only loves one thing more than her favorite shows: mangoes. Awards: Forbes’s 30 Under 30 in Media, 2016; Fast Company’s Most Creative People, 2016; Brooklyn Magazine’s 50 Funniest People, 2016; Marie Claire’s 50 Most Influential Women, 2016; The Root’s 100 Most Influential African-Americans, 2016.


Dr. Meryl Alper is an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Northeastern University and a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. Dr. Alper studies and teaches about the social implications of communication technologies, with a focus on youth and families, disability, and mobile media. She is the author of Digital Youth with Disabilities (MIT Press, 2014) and Giving Voice: Mobile Communication, Disability, and Inequality (MIT Press, 2017). Prior to joining the faculty at Northeastern, she earned her doctoral and master’s degrees from the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in Communication Studies and History from Northwestern University. In her research and teaching, Dr. Alper draws on her professional experience in educational children’s media as a researcher, strategist, and consultant with Sesame Workshop, PBS, Disney, Nickelodeon, and Noggin/The-N (which is where she met Drake when he was still just Jimmy Brooks #Degrassi).


Kishonna L. Gray (Ph.D., Arizona State University) is currently a MLK Visiting Scholar in Women & Gender Studies and Comparative Media Studies/Writing at MIT, and a Berkman Klein Fellow at Harvard. She is also the Founder of the Critical Gaming Lab at Eastern Kentucky University. She is expanding on the work created here to develop new initiatives surrounding Equity in Gaming (www.equityingaming.com). Her work broadly intersects identity and new media although she has a particular focus on gaming. Her most recent book, Race, Gender, & Deviance in Xbox Live (Routledge, 2014), provides a much-needed theoretical framework for examining deviant behavior and deviant bodies within that virtual gaming community. Her work has been featured in the LA Times, Paste Magazine, Engadget, The Guardian, BET, and Blavity. Follow her on Twitter @KishonnaGray and the Equity in Gaming Initative at @equityingaming.


Jonny Sun is the author behind @jonnysun. As a Twitter comedian, he has appeared in NPR, BuzzFeed, Playboy, GQ, and McSweeney’s. His past and present lives include: architect, designer, engineer, artist, playwright and comedy writer. He is currently a doctoral student at MIT and a Berkman Klein Fellow at Harvard, where he studies humor and online place. His first book, “everyone’s a aliebn when ur a aliebn too” (HarperPerennial) comes out in June 2017.

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