Please join authors@mit and the Humanities Library as Nicholas Ashford speaks on his book Environmental Law, Policy and Economics:  Reclaiming the Environmental Agenda.  Professor Ashford will show how environmental law cases have led to important legal, economic, and scientific developments, and how use of the law can stimulate technological change and industrial transformation.

“Ashford and Caldart have produced an extraordinary book sweeping across the scientific complexity, legal underpinnings, economic logic, and policy challenges of environmental protection…this book offers an indispensable foundation for those seeking to understand society¹s approach to environmental challenges.”

—Daniel C. Esty, Yale Law School

“Environmental Law, Policy, and Economics” is published by the MIT Press.

Nicholas Ashford is Professor of Technology and Director of the Technology and Law Program at MIT.

The book is co-authored by Charles C. Caldart, Director of Litigation of the National Environmental Law Center and a Lecturer in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT.

Where: MIT E51-145

When: Friday May 15th, 2009, 12:00-1:00 p.m.

The event is free and wheelchair accessible.

For more information, call call 253-5249, or email authors@mit.edu. See the MIT Press Bookstore’s “Events” page for a list of upcoming events.

German-Turkish poet and essayist Zafer Senocak will read from his book “Tursprachen/Door Languages.” The reading will be in both German and English, with translation provided by his translator Elizabeth Ochlkers Wright.

• When: Thursday April 2nd, 5pm
• Where: the MIT Humanities Library Reading Room (14S-200)

• Date: Sunday, March 15th, 2009
• Exhibit: 2PM – 5PM
• Talk: 3PM
• Where: Hayden Memorial Library (building 14S),
• Food: Light refreshments will be served

Quilt collector Heather Korostoff Murray introduces us to African-American improvisational quilts: the unique qualities of these extraordinary textiles, their possible African connections, and the stories behind their creators. The exhibit will feature twenty-five quilts from her collection, illustrating the key characteristics of the genre. Her slides come from quilt scholar and curator Eli Leon’s extensive collection. Leon has generously provided the slides to edify Murray’s audience about this special province of African-American quilt making. Murray’s talk will focus on the lives and work of eight significant African-American improvisational quilt makers, including striking examples from Leon’s collection.

Murray’s interests include the quilt makers themselves – their stories, inspirations and astonishing talents. Her talk incorporates the technical side of the quilts, as well as anecdotes of their inspiration.

Heather Korostoff Murray, Bio
Heather Korostoff Murray, a native Philadelphian and long-time admirer of traditional Bucks County quilts, stumbled upon her first African-American improvisational quilt while exploring online. This experience launched a passion for the genre that has quickly led to a considerable collection, and a desire to learn more about these spectacular textiles and their makers. She finds these distinctive quilts to have an almost palpable depth and melodic eloquence.

Sponsored by the MIT Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies, MIT Humanities Library and the Program in Women’s and Gender Studies

Please join authors@mit and the Humanities Library in celebrating the publication of Digital Apollo, the newest book by MIT’s David Mindell. “Digital Apollo” tells the story of how human pilots and automated systems worked together to achieve the ultimate in flight—the lunar landings of NASA’s Apollo program.

“Digital Apollo is an excellent and unique historical account of the lengthy and often pitched struggle of designers, engineers, and pilots to successfully integrate man and complex computer systems for the Apollo lunar landings. It brings back fond memories.”
—Edgar Mitchell, Sc.D.; Captain, USN (retired) Lunar Module Pilot, Apollo 14

About the book:
As Apollo 11’s Lunar Module descended toward the moon under automatic control, a program alarm in the guidance computer’s software nearly caused a mission abort. Neil Armstrong responded by switching off the automatic mode and taking direct control. He stopped monitoring the computer and began flying the spacecraft, relying on skill to land it and earning praise for a triumph of human over machine.

In “Digital Apollo”, engineer-historian David Mindell takes this famous moment as a starting point for an exploration of the relationship between humans and computers in the Apollo program. In each of the six Apollo landings, the astronaut in command seized control from the computer and landed with his hand on the stick. Mindell recounts the story of astronauts’ desire to control their spacecraft in parallel with the history of the Apollo Guidance Computer. From the early days of aviation through the birth of spaceflight, test pilots and astronauts sought to be more than “spam in a can” despite the automatic controls, digital computers, and software developed by engineers. Digital Apollo examines the design and execution of each of the six Apollo moon landings, drawing on transcripts and data telemetry from the flights, astronaut interviews, and NASA’s extensive archives.

Mindell’s exploration of how human pilots and automated systems worked together to achieve the ultimate in flight–a lunar landing–traces and reframes the debate over the future of humans and automation in space. The results have implications for any venture in which human roles seem threatened by automated systems, whether it is the work at our desktops or the future of exploration.

“Digital Apollo” is published by the MIT Press, 2008.

Visit the Digital Apollo website for more information about the book!

David A. Mindell is Dibner Professor of the History of Engineering and Manufacturing, Professor of Engineering Systems, and Director of the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at MIT. He is the author of “Between Human and Machine: Feedback, Control, and Computing before Cybernetics” and “War, Technology, and Experience aboard the USS Monitor.”

Where: MIT 32-155, Stata Center

When: Thursday November 13th, 6:00pm

The event is free and wheelchair accessible.

For more information, call call 253-5249, or email authors@mit.edu. See the MIT Press Bookstore’s “Events” page for a list of upcoming events.

Please join authors@mit and the Humanities Library in welcoming Sherry Turkle as she introduces her newest book, “The Inner History of Devices”

In this volume, the third in a trilogy, Turkle combines memoir, clinical writings, and ethnography to draw new perspectives on the experience of technology. Her  personal stories illuminate how technology enters the inner life.

“What a remarkable book—as if it were a magic toolbox, out of this volume come objects with stories: cell phones, dialysis machines, defibrillators, websites, and much more. Using fieldwork, clinical
work, and memory work, Sherry Turkle and her terrific contributors make the material world a place of living meanings that tell a great deal about who we are—and who we are becoming. Even more: this is a
sophisticated book that is great fun to read.” —Peter Galison, Joseph Pellegrino University Professor, Harvard University

“The Inner History of Devices” is published by The MIT Press.

Sherry Turkle is Abby Rockefeller Mauze Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT. Her previous books include “Falling for Science: Objects in Mind”, and “Evocative Objects: Things We Think With.”

Where: MIT 35-225, Sloan Laboratory Building

When: Thursday November 6th, 6:00pm

The event is free and wheelchair accessible.

For more information, call call 253-5249, or email authors@mit.edu. See the MIT Press Bookstore’s “Events” page for a list of upcoming events.

Please join us at The MIT Humanities Library as MIT’s Christopher Capozzola introduces his new book.

“Uncle Sam Wants You” tells the gripping story of the American homefront in World War I, revealing how the tensions of mass mobilization led to a significant increase in power in Washington, and made wartime America the scene of some of the nation’s most serious political violence.

“Uncle Sam Wants You” is published by Oxford University Press.

Christopher Capozzola is an Associate Professor of History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

This event is sponsored by authors@mit, a lecture series cosponsored by MIT Libraries and The MIT Press Bookstore.

Where: The MIT Humanities Library Reading Room (14S-200)

When: Wednesday September 24th, 5:30pm

The event is free and wheelchair accessible.

For more information, call call 253-5249, or email authors@mit.edu. See the MIT Press Bookstore’s “Events” page for a list of upcoming events.

In this lecture, Singer discusses how Bergman used philosophical ideas “in an extended sense” — not by including philosophical discussions in his films, but through his masterful use of cinematic technique to examine the particularities of human experience. Singer also describes how Bergman wove aspects of his own life’s story into his films, in intense and vivid ways.

Irving Singer is Professor of Philosophy at MIT. He is the author of Reality Transformed: Film as Meaning and Technique, Three Philosophical Filmmakers: Hitchcock, Welles, Renoir (both published by The MIT Press), and many other books.

This event was sponsored by authors@mit. For more information, call call 253-5249, or email authors@mit.edu. See the MIT Press Bookstore’s “Events” page for a list of upcoming events.

Join The Humanities Library for a discussion of the book that has literary circles buzzing. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Associate Professor in Writing and Humanistic Studies Junot Díaz, has been included on several year-end “best of” lists for fiction published in 2007. The discussion will be moderated by librarian Mark Szarko.

• When: Thursday January 24, 11am-12:00pm
• Where: 14N-417
• Cost: Free
• Contact: Mark Szarko (617-258-8022, szarko@mit.edu) to register, and for further details

The first 8 registrants will receive a free copy of the novel!

Please join authors@mit in welcoming Professor Irving Singer, as he speaks on his new book, Ingmar Bergman, Cinematic Philosopher, just published by The MIT Press.

Known for their repeating motifs and signature tropes, the films of Ingmar Bergman also contain extensive variation and development. In these reflections on Bergman’s artistry and thought, Irving Singer discerns distinctive themes in Bergman’s filmmaking, from first intimations in the early work to consummate resolutions in the later movies. Singer demonstrates that while Bergman’s output was not philosophy on celluloid, it attains an expressive and purely aesthetic truthfulness that can be considered philosophical in a broader sense.  

Irving Singer is Professor of Philosophy at MIT. He is the author of Reality Transformed: Film as Meaning and Technique, Three Philosophical Filmmakers: Hitchcock, Welles, Renoir (both published by The MIT Press), and many other books. 

Where: The MIT Humanities Library Reading Room (14S-200)

When: Thursday November 15th, 6:00pm

The event is free and wheelchair accessible. 

For more information, call call 253-5249, or email authors@mit.edu.  See the MIT Press Bookstore’s “Events” page for a list of upcoming events.

Please join authors@mit in welcoming former MIT staffer Robin Lippincott back to MIT, as he reads from his 3rd novel, In the Meantime, just published by Toby press. 

Where:  The MIT Humanities Library Reading Room (14S-200)

When:  Tuesday October 16th, 6:00pm 

See the MIT Press Bookstore’s “Events” page for further details. 

Please join us as Professor William J. Mitchell presents his newest book. Imagining MIT is the image rich story of the decade long, billion-dollar building boom at MIT and how it produced major works of architecture by Charles Correa, Frank Gehry, Steven Holl, Fumihiko Maki, and Kevin Roche.

Professor Mitchell is the Alexander W. Dreyfoos Professor of Architecture and Media Arts and Sciences and directs the Smart Cities research group at MIT’s Media Lab.

Imagining MIT is published by The MIT Press, 2007.
This event is free and wheelchair accessible.

• Date: Monday April 30, 2007
• Time: 6:30pm
• Where: MIT 32-123, Kirsch Auditorium, Stata Center, 32 Vassar Street. Near the Kendall T Stop, Cambridge
• Cost: FREE!!!
• Parking is available
• Presented by: authors@mit (MIT Press Boostore, MIT Libraries)
• More Information: 617-253-5249, or books@mit.edu

Professor Mitchell is the Alexander W. Dreyfoos Professor of Architecture and Media Arts and Sciences and directs the Smart Cities research group at MIT’s Media Lab.

Imagining MIT is published by The MIT Press, 2007.
This event is free and wheelchair accessible.

• Date: Monday April 30, 2007
• Time: 6:30pm
• Where: MIT 32-123, Kirsch Auditorium, Stata Center, 32 Vassar Street. Near the Kendall T Stop, Cambridge
• Cost: FREE!!!
• Parking is available
• Presented by: authors@mit (MIT Press Boostore, MIT Libraries)
• More Information: 617-253-5249, or books@mit.edu

Download the video. (1 hour, 38 minutes) (606.4 Mb)

Placing Words: symbols, space, and the city: William Mitchell, 2005.

Download mp3. (1 hour, 11 minutes) (32.8 Mb)

For more information on this event, see authors@mit presents William Mitchell. To watch a video of this event, see the MIT World page. (streaming video)

Location: MIT 32-155, Stata Center, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge

Time: November 14 (Tuesday), 5:30 pm

This event is free and wheelchair accessible.

Cornell University Press, 2006

Diana E. Henderson is Professor of Literature at MIT. She is the author of
“Passion Made Public: Elizabethan Lyric, Gender, and Performance” and the
editor of “A Concise Companion to Shakespeare on Screen.”

This event is sponsored by authors@mit, a lecture series cosponsored by MIT
Libraries and The MIT Press Bookstore.

For more information call 253-5249, email authors@mit.edu, or check:
http://web.mit.edu/bookstore/www/events/

Read about Abani in the press release from the MIT Office of the Arts.

The Lewis Music Library is located in Bldg. 14E-109 and the event is free and open to the public.

William J. Mitchell speaking on his newest book, “Placing Words” (MIT Press, 2005).

The meaning of a message, says William Mitchell, depends on the context of its reception. “Shouting ‘fire’ in a crowded theater produces a dramatically different effect from barking the same word to a squad of soldiers with guns,” he observes. In his new book, Professor Mitchell looks at the ways in which urban spaces and places provide settings for communication and at how they conduct complex flows of information through the twenty-first century city.

Location: MIT E15, Bartos Theater, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Time: December 6 (Tuesday), 5:30 pm

For more information, please see: MIT Press Bookstore Events

Co-sponsored by the MIT Libraries and the MIT Press.

Yossi Sheffi, author of “The Resilient Enterprise”

Please join us as MIT Professor and international expert in supply chain management Yossi Sheffi shows us how companies can reduce their vulnerability to high-impact disruptions – the topic explored in his book The Resilient Enterprise (The MIT Press, 2005).

Location: MIT 32-141, Stata Center, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Time: November 1 (Tuesday), 6pm

For more information, please see: MIT Press Bookstore Events

Co-sponsored by the MIT Libraries and the MIT Press.