Luis Othoniel Rosa, associate professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, will give the talk "Other Futures: Poetic Uncertainty in the Age of the Algorithm" at 5 p.m. Jan. 27 in the Jackie Gaughan Multicultural Center's Ubuntu Room (Room 202).
The event is free and open to the public and will be livestreamed on Zoom. Register online for the link. His talk continues this academic year's CAS Inquire series, "Uncertainty."
"Poetry is confusing," Rosa writes. "And that is its purpose." Rosa will establish poetry’s insurgency against the technological determinacy of power and how poetic language helps us to transform the present technologies of domination into technologies of liberation. He will cover the first poem in human history, the Afro-Puerto Rican poet Ángela María Dávila, and the pan-Mayan fictional character in the south of Mexico, Subcomandante Marcos.
The series opened Sept. 9 and has included talks from the perspectives of Earth and atmospheric sciences, sociology, and political science. The fourth talk will be given next month from a faculty member in classics and religious studies, and a panel discussion with all the speakers will take place in March to close the series.
Students in the CAS Inquire program connect with college thought leaders and other inquisitive students to discuss ideas, using a college-wide series of public lectures as a focal point. The series launched in September 2019, and themes have included "The Rise of the Machines," "Finding Common Ground" and "Pain and Pleasure." During the three-year program, CAS Inquire students take specialized courses, help with facilitating the program, and enjoy additional benefits. They can apply, or be nominated by faculty, for the program as freshmen.
