Orality & Literacy in an Age of Social Media
April 4-5, 2024
The conference title, taken from Walter J. Ong’s influential work, invites us to ask the questions “What are words?” and “How do words work?” and invites scholars into a convivial conversation around the question “How might we interpret ‘In the beginning was the Word’ for our time?”
Register Now
Location:
Geneva College | 3200 College Ave. Beaver Falls, PA 15010
Registration Cost:
- $125 per guest
- Includes a dinner banquet 5 p.m. on Thursday April 4 in Benedum room
Keynote Speakers
Author and retired professor of communications from the University of Tennessee
Vice President Academic and Professor of New Testament at McMaster Divinity College
Orality & Literacy Conference Schedule
|
Thursday 4/4
|
|
|
5 – 6 p.m.
|
Registration (Kilpatrick with Burleigh and Gutberlet)
|
Alexander Hall Lobby
|
|
6 – 7:30
|
Banquet (hosted by Watt and Troup)
|
Benedum Room
|
|
7:30 – 9 p.m.
|
Plenary Session # 1 (hosted by Watt, Troup and Ward)
|
James D. Dvorak (West Reading Room – McCartney Library)
|
|
9 p.m.
|
Participants return to lodging accommodations
|
|
|
Friday 4/5
|
|
|
8 a.m.
|
Breakfast
|
At one’s lodging
|
|
9 – 10:30 a.m.
|
Parallel Session # 1 (3 rooms) *
|
Ryan McCullogh (Room A)
Andrey Mir (Room A)
Jonathan Watt (Room A)
Mikayla Covington (Room B)
Tiffany Petricini (Room B)
Adam Walker (Room B)
Eric Miller (Room C)
Dan Fleming (Room C)
Byron Curtis (Room C)
|
|
10:30 – 10:45 a.m.
|
Coffee break
|
Location TBA – (coffee, tea, pastries)
|
|
10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
|
Parallel Session # 2 (2 rooms)
|
Stephanie Bennett (Room D)
Byron Spear (Room D)
Melissa Knox-Raab (Room D)
Kenneth De Jong (Room E)
Doug Bradbury (Room E)
Richard Noble (Room E)
|
|
12:15 – 1:30 p.m.
|
Lunch
|
Alex’s among students – covered
|
|
1:30 – 3 p.m.
|
Parallel Session # 3 (2 rooms)
|
Geri Forsberg (Room F)
Michael Kearney and Janie Harden Fritz (Room F)
Calvin Troup (Room F)
Annalee Ward (Room G)
Scott Shidemantle (Room G)
Noah Bailey (Room G)
|
|
3 – 3:15 p.m.
|
Break
|
|
|
3:15 – 4:45 p.m.
|
Parallel Session # 4 (2 rooms)
|
Jonathan Watt and Regina Sturiale (Room H)
Ryan Eisenhuth (Room H)
Kelsey Ingold (Room H)
Art Hunt (Room J)
Joel Ward (Room J)
Julie Durbin (Room J)
|
|
4:45 – 5 p.m.
|
Break
|
|
|
5-5:45 p.m.
|
Special Session (1 room) **
|
Andrey Mir – book discussion (Room K)
Terry Thomas—Student Research (Room K)
|
|
5:45-6 p.m.
|
Break
|
|
|
6-7 p.m.
|
Dinner
|
Benedum Room
|
|
7 – 8 p.m.
|
Plenary Session # 2
|
Art Hunt (West Reading Room)
|
|
8 p.m.
|
Closing Remarks (Jonathan Watt)
|
|
*
|
Room A
|
NW 118
|
|
Room B
|
NW 218
|
|
Room C
|
NW 009
|
|
Room D
|
NW 118
|
|
Room E
|
NW 218
|
|
Room F
|
NW 009
|
|
Room G
|
OM 031
|
|
Room H
|
NW 013
|
|
Room J
|
NW 111
|
|
Room K
|
NW 013
|
**Andrey Mir’s book discussion: Digital Future in the Rearview Mirror. Terry Thomas’s presentation will be based on undergraduate student research.
***Titles for papers will be distributed at a later date.
For questions contact Blaine Gutberlet at oralityconference@geneva.edu
Orality & Literacy Conference: Author Names and Paper Titles
- Ryan McCullogh - “A Balanced Approach to Studying Social Media:
Ruminations on Walter Ong and Neil Postman”
- Andrey Mir - “Digital Orality”
- Jonathan Watt - “Walter Ong, Milman Parry, McMaster Divinity and Lynyrd Skynyrd
on Markers of Orality in New Testament Literature”
- Mikayla Covington - “With A Wink and A Nod: Euphemistic Language in Abortion Pill Advertising”
- Tiffany Petricini - “Forgetting and Remembering in the Social Media Age: Engaging the Voice of Walter Ong”
- Adam Walker - “Video and A.I.: The New Orality and Literacy?”
- Eric Miller – “‘Community Speech’ in the Writing of Wendell Berry”
- Dan Fleming - “Mourning in the Age of the Internet”
- Byron Curtis - “Orality and the Dexterous Text: Translating Sacred Scripture for Public Reading”
- Stephanie Bennett - “Voice, Mutuality, & the Presence of the Word:
The Spoken Word for a New Generation”
- Byron Spear – “Electronic Media and the Holy Scriptures”
- Melissa Knox-Raab - “Because I Say So: In the Beginning was Performativity”
- Kenneth De Jong - “Speech to Text in Linguistic Phonetics”
- Doug Bradbury - “Anemic Discipleship”
- Richard Noble - “Communicating the ‘Word’ in the 21st Century Post-Literate West”
- Geri Forsberg - “Orality and Literacy in an Age of Social Media”
- Michael Kearney and Janie Harden Fritz - “Metaphor in Interpretive Communication Research: Orality and Literacy Perspectives”
- Calvin Troup - “A Derivative of Three: Memory, Understanding and Will in Augustine's On the Trinity”
- Annalee Ward - “Amplifying the Presence of the Word in Worship”
- Scott Shidemantle - “The Multilingual Jesus and the Sociolinguistic World of the New Testament”
- Noah Bailey - “John Cotton’s ‘Brotherly Conference’”
- Jonathan Watt and Regina Sturiale - “The Sociolinguistics of Prison Slang”
- Ryan Eisenhuth - “Digitally Mimicked Orality and the Reality of Everyday Life: The Social Construction of Authenticity on BeReal”
- Joel Ward - “Ornament in Orality and Literacy”
- Julie Durbin - “Becoming a Traditioning Community”
- Art Hunt - “C. S. Lewis as an Oral Communicator: Steven Beebe’s C.S. Lewis and the Craft of Communication”
- Kelsey Ingold - “Transformation of the Embodied Word: Considerations for Social Media Marketing”
