Speaker Series
- RIT/
- William A. Kern Professorship in Communications/
- Speaker Series
The William A. Kern Speaker Series brings innovative thinkers to the RIT campus to share interdisciplinary insights into contemporary issues of communication, media, and visual culture.
Upcoming Speakers and Events
Porpora Marcasciano
AntoloGaia: Queering the Seventies, A Radical Trans Memoir (Rutgers University Press, 2023), Book Discussion
(Part of Viva l'Italia - RIT Celebrates Italy)
March 2025, TBA
Carla Gutierrez and Paula Ospina
Frida (2024) Screening and Discussion
(Organized by the School of Film and Animation)
March 2025, TBA
Hope Schroeder
Researcher, MIT Center for Constructive Communication
Discussions on AI and Art
April 2025, TBA
Mimmo Calopresti
Versace: L'Imperatore dei sogni/Emperor of Dreams (2023) Screening and Discussion
(Organized by the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures)
April 2025, TBA
Past Speakers and Events
Claire Raymond
Author, Poet, Teacher
American Punctum: Diane Arbus curated by Carrie Mae Weems
October 16, 2024 | 5:00 pm. | Zoom
Robert Hirsch
Director, Light Research
A Career in Photography
October 9, 2024 | 5:00 pm. | Zoom
Jacob Ostberg
Professor of Business Administration, Stockholm University
Haunted by Fashion
April 25, 2023 | 2:00 pm. | Zoom
Gregory Zinman
Associate Professor, School of Literature, Media, and Communication, Georgia Institute of Technology
Fugitive Video: Art in 1980s NYC Nightclubs
(part of the Visual Arts, Culture, and Media Lecture Series)
April 18, 2023 | 9:30 am. | Zoom
Daresha Kyi
MAMA BEARS Film Screening, Director Q&A and Reception
(Sponsored by RIT College of Art and Design, School of Film and Animation; part of the Visual Arts, Culture, and Media Lecture Series)
April 3, 2023 | 7:00 pm. | Wegmans Theatre, Magic Spells Studio/Zoom
Brian Jacobson
Professor of Visual Culture, California Institute of Technology
The French Art of Oil: Style Subtance and Sales, ca. 1960
(part of the Visual Arts, Culture, and Media Lecture Series)
March 28, 2023 | 12:30 pm. | Zoom
Marie-Agnès Parmentier
Professor of Marketing, HEC Montréal
Fashion and Consumer Culture
March 7, 2023 | 2:00 pm. | Zoom
Kehbuma Langmia
Professor, Department of Strategic, Legal and Management Communications, Howard University
Decolonizing Communication Research
(Co-hosted by students in COMM 306 Race Relations and the McKenzie Salon Series)
February 28, 2023 | 12:00 pm. | Golisano 1710
Louise Wallenberg
Professor of Fashion Studies, Stockholm University
Fashion, Modernism, and Life
February 21, 2023 | 2:00 pm. | Zoom
Miles Ethan Lascity
Associate Professor, Director, Fashion Media Program, Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University
Communicating Fashion: Clothing, Culture and Media
Thursday January 26, 2023 | 2:00 | 3201 Liberal Arts
Tanya Singer
Craft/ing your career: A maker event and conversation with Tanya Singer, knitter, digital-media guru, writer and visual textile artist
(Sponsored by RIT Advance, the Journalism Program, and the School of Communication)
Thursday November 10, 2022 | 11:00 a.m. | Fireside Lounge
Jochim Scholz
Assistant Professor of AR/XR Marketing, Brock University, Canada
The True Potential of Augmented Reality is Beyond Imagination
Wednesday October 26, 2022 | 5:00 p.m. | Eastman 1310 / Zoom
Catherine Coleman
Professor and Chair of the Department of Strategic Communication, Bob Schieffer College of Communication, Texas Christian University
“If You Can See Her, You Can Be Her”: Applying a Transformative Advertising Research Lens to the Multistakeholder SeeHer Initiative
(part of the Visual Arts, Culture, and Media Lecture Series)
Wednesday October 19, 2022 | 5:00 p.m. | Eastman 1310 / Zoom
Colleen Dunagan
Professor of Dance, California State University, Long Beach
Affective Branding: Corporeal Signatures in/as Visual Culture
(part of the Visual Arts, Culture, and Media Lecture Series)
April 12, 2022 | 3:30 | Zoom
Josh Kun
Chair in Cross-Cultural Communication, Professor of Communication and Journalism, Director, The Popular Music Project, Norman Lear Center, University of Southern California
Animating the Archive of Los Angeles: Sound, Vision, Memory
(part of the Visual Arts, Culture, and Media Lecture Series)
April 8, 2022 | 12:00 | Zoom
Jeffrey H. Jackson
Professor of History, Rhodes College
Paper Bullets
(History Department, College of Liberal Arts event)
April 5, 2022 | 7:00 | Webb Auditorium
Mark Sealy
Professor of Photography, University of the Arts, London
Joshua Rashaad McFadden
Assistant Professor, RIT School of Photographic Arts and Sciences
Katrina Overby
Assistant Professor, RIT School of Communication
Conversations on Race, Rights, and Representation
(part of the Visual Arts, Culture, and Media Lecture Series)
March 24, 2022 | 3:30 | Zoom
Granville Carroll
Educator and Afrofuturist Photographer
Dark Matter
(part of the Visual Arts, Culture, and Media Lecture Series)
March 17, 2022 | 3:30 | Zoom
Penny Milliken
CEO, HeR Interactive, Inc.
Suzy O'Hara
Chief Creative Officer, HeR Interactive, Inc.
Nancy Drew Games: The Case of the Vanishing Retailers
(part of the Visual Arts, Culture, and Media Lecture Series)
October 27, 2021 | 5:00 pm | Zoom
Jenna Drenten
Associate Professor, Quinlan School of Business, Loyola University Chicago
"Pics or It Didn't Happen: Consumer Identity in the Attention Economy"
September 29, 2021 | 5:00 pm | Zoom
Nadya Bair
Assistant Professor of Visual Culture and Digital Humanities, Hamilton College
Corporate News Pictures at Magnum Photos
(part of the Visual Arts, Culture, and Media Lecture Series)
April 8, 2021 | 12:30 | Zoom
Rose Bishop
Independent Archivist
Girl in Action: Junior Bazaar, 1945-1948
(part of the Visual Arts, Culture, and Media Lecture Series)
March 17, 2021 | 3:30 | Zoom
Erin Pauwels
Assistant Professor of Art History, Temple University
Napoleon Sarony and the Mixed Media Backgrounds of American Photography
(part of the Visual Arts, Culture, and Media Lecture Series)
March 10, 2021 | 3:30 | Zoom
Finola Kerrigan
Professor of Marketing, Director, Fashion Business Research Centre, University of the Arts, London
Marketing Communications/Film Promotion
February 3, 2021 | 3:30 | Zoom
Dirk Schroeder
CEO & Founder, Updraft Health Innovation Advisors
Leveraging LinkedIn: Build your career even when you’re not looking for a job
November 2, 2020 | 5:00 | Zoom
Will Straw
James McGill Professor of Urban Media Studies, McGill University
The Music Scene as Cinematic Figure
(part of the Visual Arts, Culture, and Media Lecture Series, co-sponsored by the School of Individualized Study)
January 30, 2020 | 12:30 | University Gallery
Michael Leja
James and Nan Wagner Farquhar Professor of History of Art, Chair, History of Art Department, University of Pennsylvania
Photographic Fusions and the Mass Marketing of Photography: The Langenheim Brothers at Niagara Falls
(co-sponsored with the Visual Arts, Culture, and Media Lecture Series, College of Liberal Arts)
October 17, 2019 | 12:30 | Carlson 1155
Vanessa Schwartz
Professor of History, Art History and Film; Director, Visual Studies Research Institute at the University of Southern California
The News in Black and White…and Color: The Jet Age and Photojournalism
(co-sponsored with the Visual Arts, Culture, and Media Lecture Series, the School of Communication, and the College of Photographic Arts and Sciences)
September 23, 2019 | 3.00 | McKenzie Commons
Guy Mastrion
F. William Harder Chair in Business Administration, Skidmore College
Brandforming
April 11, 2019 | 5:00 | 2372 Eastman
Rachel Andrews
Assistant Collection Manager, Department of Photography, George Eastman Museum
Colorama
March 28, 2019 | 5:00 | 3355 Eastman
Roberta Mather
Marketing Director, U.S. Department of State
Preparing Presentations for Deaf, Hard-of-hearing, and Hearing speakers and Audiences: How we can be better
(Organized by National Technical Institute for the Deaf and School of Communication)
March 1, 2019 | 3:00 | Bamboo Room (2650)
Keon Pettiway
Researcher, Department of Communication, North Carolina State University
and
Vicki Gallagher
Professor, Department of Communication, North Carolina State University
The vMLK Project: Crafting a Necessary (Digital) Space To Explore Rhetoric and Civic Transformation
(An Imagine RIT event, co-sponsored with the College of Liberal Arts, School of Communication, Magic Center, Gannett Endowment, Black Awareness Coordinating Committee, Center for Campus Life, College of Art and Design, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Inclusive Excellence, National Society of Black Engineers)
February 28, 2019 | 1:00 | Wegman's Theatre, Magic Center
Marita Sturken
Professor of Media, Culture and Communication, New York University
Voids and Skyscrapers: New Practices of Looking in Post 9/11 New York
December 4, 2018 | 3:30 | Carlson Auditorium
Whose Streets? Our Streets! Panel Discussion
(An RIT College of Liberal Arts Event)
October 11, 2018 | 3:30 | Carlson Auditorium
Anna and Frederick Douglass’s Parking (Lots of Love)
(An Imagine RIT event, co-sponsored with the College of Liberal Arts, Department of History,
Digital Humanities and Social Sciences, School of Communication, School of Individualized Study,
the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences,
the Division of Diversity and Inclusion, and MAGIC Spell Studios)
April 28, 2018 | RIT Campus
Penny M. Von Eschen
L. Sanford and Jo Mills Reis Professor of Humanities, Cornell University
Mischeivous Objects: Cold War Nostalgia and the Afterlives of Mid-century Design
(part of the William A. Kern Conference in Visual Communication)
April 27, 2018 | 1:45 | Strathallan Hotel, 550 East Avenue, Rochester
Kyle Psaty
Product Marketing Manager, Brand Networks
March 29, 2018 | 5:30 pm | 2149 Gleason Hall
Brud Holland
Chef; Founder, Finger Lakes Made
Finger Lakes Culinary Bounty
January 18, 2018 | 5:30 pm | 2149 Gleason Hall
Kin Sejpal
Assistant Vice-President, Marketing and Branding, Rochester Institute of Technology
Branding RIT
January 18, 2018 | 6:30 pm | 2149 Gleason Hall
John Lucaites
Provost Professor of English, Indiana University
Seeing the Public Image Anew: Photography Exhibitions and Civic Spectatorship
October 26, 2017 | 3:30 pm | 2650 Campus Center
R. Roger Remington
Vignelli Distinguished Professor of Design and Director of the Vignelli Center for Design Studies, RIT
Evaluating Visual Communication Design
October 17, 2017 | 3:30 pm | Xerox Auditorium, 2580 James Gleason Hall
Robert Hariman
Professor of Communication, Northwestern University
Photography, The Abundant Art
April 25, 2017 | 2:00 pm | 1829 Room SAU
Elisabetta Sanino D'Amanda
Coordinator, Italian Program, RIT
100 Years of African Italian Stories in Italian Cinema
(An RIT Office of Diversity and Exclusion Series)
February 28, 2017 - Friday March 17, 2017
Kate Myers Emery
Manager, Digital Engagement, George Eastman Museum
Not Everything to Everyone: Observations from Creating A Social Media Brand
February 16, 2017 | 9:30 am | Orange Hall, Room 1355
Melissa Gregg
Principal Engineer, Intel Corporation
The Cinematic Origins of Self-Management
(part of the Kern Conference in Visual Communication)
April 14, 2016 | 2:00 pm | Strathallan Hotel
Mehita Iqani
Associate Professor, University of the Witwatersland, South Africa
Race, Taste and the Transnational Celebrity
(part of the Kern Conference in Visual Communication)
April 14, 2016 | 3:00 pm | Strathallan Hotel
Lee Humphreys
Associate Professor, Cornell University
Media Traces and the Qualified Self
(part of the Kern Conference in Visual Communication)
April 15, 2016 | 11:15 am | Strathallan Hotel
Richard Popp
Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Picturing the Postcapitalist Corporation: The Conglomerate in American Culture, 1945-1980
April 20, 2016 | 5:00 pm | Bamboo Room, Campus Life Center
Claudia Pretelin
Doctoral Researcher, National Autonomous University of Mexico
Researching Kodak: A Case Study
April 6, 2016 | 5:00 pm | Eastman 3338
Mike Bonanno
Co-Founder of the Yes Men
(A Charles Arnold Lecture - Organized by the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences)
March 17, 2016 | 6:30 pm | Carlson Auditorium
Carol Summerfield
Chief Strategy Officer, TeamWorks, Chicago
The Changing Landscape: How Museums Can Demonstrate Expertise in the Age of Google
March 16, 2016 | 5:00 pm | Bamboo Room, Campus Life Center
Ronald L. Jackson II
Professor of Communication, University of Cincinnati
Who Gets to Be Human? Widespread Campus Racism in 2016
(Co-sponsored with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the School of Communication)
February 9, 2016 | 11:00 am | Golisano Auditorium
Giovanna Taviani
Film Director
Ritorni [film] and Discussion
(Part of the See-Cily Series, organized by the Modern Languages and Cultures Department)
November 11, 2015 | 6:00 pm | Carlson Auditorium
Meredith Davenport
Assistant Professor, RIT College of Imaging Arts and Sciences
Hinda Mandell
Assistant Professor, RIT School of Communication
and
Kelly Norris Martin
Assistant Professor, RIT School of Communication
Interdisciplinary Looks at Troubling Images
(A College of LIberal Arts McKenzie Salon)
September 30, 2015 | 4:00 pm | McKenzie Commons
Steven Overman
President, Consumer and Film Division, Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President, Eastman Kodak Company
The Picture Revolution
April 16th, 2015 | 3.30 | Eastman 2000
Ken Hicks
Managing Director, Hicks + Disanti, Chicago
and
Ben Disanti
Managing Partner for Planning Perspectives, Hicks + Disanti, Chicago
The Emotional Shopper
April 14th, 2015 | 5:30 pm | 1829 Room, SAU
Gregg Lambert
Dean’s Professor of Humanities, Syracuse University
The Idea of the Image of Thought
(Co-sponsored with the Department of Philosophy)
March 5, 2015 | 6:30 pm | Golisano 3435
Gordon Coonfield
Associate Professor of Communication & Director of Graduate Studies, Villanova University
Zombies and 'Us': Difference and the Logic of Representation in the Walking Dead
November 13, 2014 | 5.00 pm | Carlson Auditorium
David Marshall
Professor of Marketing and Consumer Behavior, University of Edinburgh, UK
The Good Father: Advertising Discourse and Fatherhood in Good Housekeeping 1950-2010
(part of the School of Communication speaker series)
October 28, 2014 | 11 a.m. | Golisano Hall, Room 1400
Barbara Phillips
Rawlco Scholar in Advertising and Professor of Marketing, University of Saskatchewan, Canada
Tertium Quid: Explorations in Visual Brand Identity
October, 23, 2014 | 11.00 am | 1829 Room, SAU
Lisa Hostetler
Curator-in-Charge, Department of Photography, George Eastman House
The Photography Collection at George Eastman House: Past, Present, Future
October, 16, 2014 | 6.00 pm | Carlson Auditorium
Derek Conrad Murray
Associate Professor, History of Art and Visual Culture, University of California, Santa Cruz
The Self Reimagined: Identity, Social Media and the Politics of the Specular Image
(part of Kern Conference in Visual Communication)
April 25, 2014 | 1:15 pm | Strathallan Hotel Ballroom
Gloria Kim
Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow of Media, Hobart William & Smith Colleges
Future Tense: “Pathogenic Nation-Making” and Engineering the Imminent Threat of Avian Flu
April 17, 2014 | 11:00 am | James E. Gleason Hall, Room 2159
Jonathan Bean
Assistant Professor of Markets, Innovation & Design, Bucknell University
Fairytale Brands
February 20, 2014 | 3:45 pm | McKenzie Commons
Lewis Gordon
Professor of Philosophy and Africana Studies, University of Connecticut
Europhilosophy Visiting Professor at Toulouse University, France
and Nelson Mandela Visiting Professor at Rhodes University, South Africa
Living Thought, Living Freedom: Themes in Africana Philosophy
(Co-sponsored with the Department of Philosophy)
November 13, 2013 | 4;00 pm | Eastman Building, Room 2000
Margo Buchanan-Oliver
Professor of Marketing and Director of the Centre for Digital Enterprise,
University of Auckland Business School, New Zealand
Brand Pathologies: 'Monstrous' Consumer Relationships and the Media Brand Twilight
October 17, 2013 | 6:00 pm | Eastman Building, Room 3287
Bruce Barnes
Director, George Eastman House
Eastman House -- Forward
September 19, 2013 | 6:00 pm | Carlson Auditorium
Ryan Looysen
Retail Leader & People Developer of Lush Sweden, Stockholm Sweden
The Social Media Paradox: Narrow, Deep, and Dangerous
March 27, 2013 | Eastman Building, Room 3287 | 6:00 pm
John Tagg
Professor of Art History & Comparative Literature, Binghamton University
Discipline and Protest: Thinking Photography after Foucault
(Co-sponsored with the Eugene Fram Chair in Critical Thinking)
January 31, 2013 | Carlson Auditorium | 6:00 pm
Minh-ha Pham
Assistant Professor, History of Art & Visual Studies Department and Asian American Studies Program, Cornell University
Personal Style Blogs and DIY Race: On Race, Aesthetics, and Capitalism
January 30, 2013 | Carlson Auditorium | 2:00 pm
Zeynep Arsel
Assistant Professor of Marketing, Concordia University, Canada
Taste Regimes and Market-Mediated Practice
(Co-sponsored with Saunders College of Business)
December 13, 2012 | Max Lowenthal Hall | 4 – 6 pm
Jonathan Clancy
Program Director, American Fine & Decorative Art, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, New York City
Crafting Modernism(s): American Studio Ceramics in the Post-War Period
(in conjunction with the Frans Wildenhain Exhibition)
September 13, 2012 | Carlson Auditorium | 4 – 6 pm
Donna DeCesare
Associate Professor, School of Journalism University of Texas at Austin
Communicating Crisis: Photojournalism's Crucible
(part of the Kern Conference on Visual Communication)
May 3, 2012 | 5:00 pm | Strathallan Hotel
Allison Sekuler
Associate Vice-President & Dean of Graduate Studies, and Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience, McMaster University, Canada
and
Patrick J. Bennett
Professor, and Canada Research Chair in Vision Science, McMaster University, Canada
Aging, Vision and the Real World
(Co-sponsored with the Department of Psychology)
April 18. 2012 | Carlson Auditorium | 12 - 2
Detlev Zwick
Associate Professor of Marketing, Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto
Marketers as the new Communists: Socialized Marketing, Capitalist Commonism, and the Knowledge Consumer
April 17, 2012 | Golisano Hall, 70-1400 | 10 - 12
Sunny Tsai
Assistant Professor of Advertising, University of Miami School of Communication
Minority Consumers and the Political Ideologies of Targeted Advertising
March 29, 2012 | Webb Auditorium | 10 - 12
Markus Giesler
Associate Professor of Marketing, Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto
Doppelgänger Brand Images: How They Arise and Are Combated Over the Life of a Technology Brand
March 22, 2012 | Carlson Auditorium| 10 - 12
Jacqueline Botterill
Associate Professor, Department of Popular Culture, Communication and Film, Brock University, Canada
Property Porn: A Visual Analysis of Real-Estate Advertising
January 26, 2012 | Eastman Building, room 2000 | 10 - 12
Lilia Ziamou
Associate Professor of Marketing, Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College, City University of New York
Creating a Compelling Engagement Experience: Lessons from the Rubin Museum of Art
January 12, 2012 | Bamboo Room, 6 – 8 pm
Miko Dymek
Research Specialist, Jung Relations Communication Agency, Stockholm, and Postdoctoral Researcher, Uppsala University, Sweden
Simulational Media – A Meandering Journey Towards a Mass-Culture of Games
December 1, 2011 | Carlson Auditorium, 7 -9 pm
Xin Zhao
Associate Professor, Shidler College of Business, University of Hawaii, Manoa
Brands and the Mythology of Nation-Building in Chinese Society
October 17, 2011 | Webb Auditorium | 12 – 2 pm
Ruth Bereson
Director, Arts Management Program, University at Buffalo
Unwrapping Christo: A City in Conversation with its Past and Present, Politicians, Artists, Academics, and a Local and International Audience
May, 5, 2011 | James E. Gleason Hall, Room 2139 | 12.00
Ashlee Humphreys
Assistant Professor, Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University
From Conservation to Sustainability: The Discursive Life of Environmentalism
March 31, 2011 | Carlson Auditorium | 12.00