I was recently asked to take on the role of Lead Faculty for the new Penn State degree program in Digital Multimedia Design. I am very excited to be part of this excellent and highly relevant academic field, especially because it is part of the #1-ranked Penn State World Campus. I will continue to work in my home at the College of IST.
In 2013 I defended my doctoral dissertation with Magna Cum Laude honors in Berlin, Germany in Media and Communication Philosophy. I started my Ph.D. at the University of Denver in Philosophy and Cultural Theory and finished at Europäische Universität für Interdisziplinäre Studien, European Graduate School EGS, Saas-Fee, Ringacker, Switzerland.
Dissertation Oral Defense: May 2013, Berlin, Germany.
Committee Advisory Chair: Dr. Professor Hubertus von Amelunxen, Präsident, President, Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig / Braunschweig University of Art.
Committee Members: Dr. Larry Rickels and Dr. Jennifer Davy.
Dissertation published Atropos Press, Dresden, Germany, New York, 2014.
Media, Meaning, & the Legitimation Problem from the Eradication of the Meta Narrative to the Present is a book I authored and published with Atropos Press (Dresden, Germany & New York) in 2014. Working with my dissertation advisory committee at European Graduate School in Saas-fee, Switzerland this research project was my Doctoral dissertation.
“The late Jean-Francois Lyotard wrote that metanarratives, that is, the big stories we live by, legitimate our lives both as individuals and collectively, living within societal groups. Lyotard also explained that the metanarrative has been eradicated from Western culture and that efficiency (i.e. a fast-track to profit) is the only model left which leaves the current state of legitimation in a curious position. We are left asking the question: ‘What legitimates?'”