The IGS will be a co-sponsor of the 24th annual Media Ecology Association convention, to be held at Fordham University in New York City on June 22-25, 2023. Featured speakers include Michael Schudson, Richard Sennett, Douglas Rushkoff, and Vera Dika. For more information, click here.

The Institute of General Semantics is hosting the 69th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture and a two-day general semantics symposium at the Players Club in New York City on October 1-3, 2021.

Reservations are required to attend the events.  Reservations and papers are now being accepted.

• To reserve your spot at the AKML and symposium, click here.

• Call for Papers Details:

Science, Sanity, and the Semantic Environment

Submission Deadline: September 1, 2021

The Institute of General Semantics is sponsoring a two-day general semantics symposium co-sponsored by the New York Society for General Semantics and the Media Ecology Association. The symposium — titled Science, Sanity, and the Semantic Environment — will be hosted October 2-3, 2021, at The Players Club in New York City. It will follow the 69th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture, which will be presented on Friday evening, October 1st, 2021.

Email papers, proposals, and inquiries on this year’s theme by September 1, 2021, to Lance Strate (President, Institute of General Semantics) at president@generalsemantics.org.

About General Semantics

General semantics is a popular, practical discipline that applies modern scientific thinking toward the solution of personal and professional problems. Through the application of general semantics ideas and principles, general semantics brings about clearer thinking, peaceful interaction, and greater sanity to one's life. General semantics has served as the foundation for numerous approaches to human problems with its unique applications adapted from modern science.

• Click here to read more about general semantics.
• Click here to read about fields that have drawn from the field of general semantics.

Siva Vaidhyanathan

The Institute of General Semantics is pleased to announce that Siva Vaidhyanathan will deliver the 69th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture on October 1, 2021.

A two-day general semantics symposium will follow on October 2-3, 2021.

Details on the events are in the early stages of planning. Save the dates and watch the IGS website (http://www.generalsemantics.org) for updates.

• For more information about the 69th AKML, and to RSVP, click here.
• For more information about the two-day general semantics symposium, and to RSVP, click here.

About the Speaker

A cultural historian, media scholar, and lecturer, Siva Vaidhyanathan speaks on the impact of digitalization on society and democracy. In his speeches, he encourages audiences to consider how technology like Google and social media shape the way we think, and what we can do to foster a new Internet ecosystem designed to benefit the whole world.

At the University of Virginia, Siva serves as the Robertson Professor of Media Studies and the director of the Center for Media and Citizenship. He is a frequent contributor on media and cultural issues on public radio shows and news programs, notably BBC, CNN and NBC.

Siva has authored several books, including Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2018). His articles have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian and The Nation.

About the AKML

• For a history of the Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture Series, click here.

About General Semantics

General semantics is a popular, practical discipline that applies modern scientific thinking toward the solution of personal and professional problems. Through the application of general semantics ideas and principles, general semantics brings about clearer thinking, peaceful interaction, and greater sanity to one's life. General semantics has served as the foundation for numerous approaches to human problems with its unique applications adapted from modern science.

• Click here to read more about general semantics.
• Click here to read about fields that have drawn from the field of general semantics.

The 68th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture is scheduled for the evening of October 9, 2020. The 2020 General Semantics Symposium is scheduled for two days, October 10-11, 2020.

Originally, IGS scheduled these events to take place at the Princeton Club in New York City.

However, because of the ongoing pandemic, the board of trustees for the Institute of General Semantics has decided this year to transform the 68th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture and the 2020 General Semantics Symposium into virtual events.

Therefore, there will be no physical events this year at the Princeton Club in New York City.

Instead, IGS will host virtual events in their place.

Details will be announced at a later date on the IGS News Blog on how to participate in the virtual AKML and symposium.

Updated June 23, 2020, to reflect that both events will now be virtual events.

The Institute of General Semantics has announced the 2020 dates for the 68th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture and the Two-Day General Semantics Symposium.

The 68th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture and dinner will take place on Friday evening, October 9, 2020 at the Princeton Club in New York City. This year, because of the pandemic, IGS will host the Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture virtually.

It will be followed on Saturday and Sunday, October 10-11, 2020, with a two-day general semantics symposium at the Princeton Club. The symposium will also be hosted virtually.

The 68th AKML

The 68th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecturer is to be announced at a later date. For more information on the 68th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture, its preceding dinner, and ticketing information, click here.  For a history of the Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture Series, click here.

The GS Symposium

The topic for the 2020 general semantics symposium is Language and “Reality” in the 21st Century.  For more information on the 2020 symposium and ticketing information, click here.

Calls for Papers, Presentations & Nominations

Also, the Institute of General Semantics has released a call for papers and presentations for the symposium. The deadline for symposium submissions is September 1, 2020.

In addition, the Institute of General Semantics has released a call for nominations for this year's Hayakawa Book Prize. The deadline for submissions is also September 1, 2020.   For a history of the Hayakawa Book Prize, click here.

Submission Deadline: September 1, 2019

The Institute of General Semantics is sponsoring a two-day general semantics symposium co-sponsored by the New York Society for General Semantics and the Media Ecology Association. The symposium -- titled The Tyranny of Words* -- will be hosted at the Princeton Club in New York City October 12th-13th, 2019. It will follow the 67th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture, which will be presented on Friday evening, October 11th, 2019.  * The 2019 symposium title was originally "Communication in the 21st Century." Prior submissions under that title will still be honored. Send papers, proposals, and inquiries by September 1, 2019, to mandklevin [at] aol.com. For more information, contact Martin H. Levinson, President of the Institute of General Semantics, by phone at (212) 729-7973 or by mail at: Martin H. Levinson c/o Institute of General Semantics Attn: 2019 Symposium 72-11 Austin Street #233 Forest Hills, NY 11375

About General Semantics

General semantics is a popular, practical discipline that applies modern scientific thinking toward the solution of personal and professional problems. Through the application of general semantics ideas and principles, general semantics brings about clearer thinking, peaceful interaction, and greater sanity to one's life. General semantics has served as the foundation for numerous approaches to human problems with its unique applications adapted from modern science.

• Click here to read more about general semantics.
• Click here to read about fields that have drawn from the field of general semantics.

The call for papers for the 2017 General Semantics Symposium, which will be held October 28th-29th, 2017, at the Princeton Club in New York City, is now available.

The topic for this year is Crazy Talk, Stupid Talk, a title inspired by the popular book by famed general semantics scholar and past editor of ETC Neil Postman.

Details:

The Institute of General Semantics is sponsoring the 2-day symposium titled Crazy Talk, Stupid Talk co-sponsored by the New York Society for General Semantics and the Media Ecology Association. The symposium will be hosted at the Princeton Club in New York City October 28th-29th, 2017. It will follow the 65th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture, which will be presented by Terence P. Moran on Friday evening, October 27th, 2017.

Email papers, proposals, and inquiries on this year’s theme, Crazy Talk, Stupid Talk, by September 15, 2017, to presentations [at] generalsemantics.org and/or mandklevin [at] aol.com.

For more information, contact Martin H. Levinson, President of the Institute of General Semantics, by phone at (212) 729-7973 or by mail at:

Martin H. Levinson
c/o Institute of General Semantics
Attn: 2016 Symposium
72-11 Austin Street #233
Forest Hills, NY 11375

Information on the 65th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture, which occurs on October 27th, 2017, at the Princeton Club, can be found here. More information on the 2017 symposium which follows the lecture can be found here.

The following call for papers comes by way of the Media Ecology Association, and we've been asked to share it on the Institute of General Semantics website.

Editor-Elect Calvin Troup invites general submissions to Explorations in Media Ecology (EME), the international journal of the Media Ecology Association.

Media ecology is an interdisciplinary study of media as environments. Media ecologists explore relationships between communication media, human consciousness, and culture in our technological societies. Articles are expected to use rigorous theory and modes of inquiry to develop arguments that further knowledge at intersections of media, consciousness, and culture. Submissions should be exemplary in scholarship, whatever the mode of inquiry, and should offer constructive insights.

EME invites submissions of original scholarly work that builds and extends our knowledge of media ecology and welcomes contributions from a broad spectrum of academic disciplines, fields of study, and modes of inquiry. EME also welcomes work focused on media ecology education and reviews of books and other media. Manuscripts are accepted for publication based on scholarly merit and resonance with the stated purposes of the journal stated above. The journal employs a blind peer-review process. Suggestions for revision address issues of argument, style, and contribution to the area of media ecology. Writing should be clear, aesthetically pleasing, and effective. Style should be gender sensitive. The editor makes final publication decisions. Authors should expect an initial decision within four months; the editor will notify authors of editorial progress.

Please submit articles as Microsoft Word files to the submission portal, accessible through the “Submit” button at http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-Journal,id=214/ (Note: you will need to create a user account). The submission portal will supply places for contact information of the author(s), current institutional affiliation, and prior history of the manuscript. An abstract of 100 words or less and 5-7 suggested keywords will also be required.  Supplementary documents may be uploaded. The manuscript itself should be scrubbed of all identifying information before being uploaded into the portal.

Article formatting and citation should conform to Intellect’s Harvard style, which can be found at http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/MediaManager/File/style%20guide(journals)-1.pdf (or search for Intellect Publishers Harvard house style). Submissions whose references have not been thus formatted may be returned before undergoing the review process. Manuscripts should be 6,500-8,500 words inclusive (text, notes, citations, captions) and double-spaced. If images are integral to the work, please so note in your note to the editor in the submission process. Submissions to EME should not be under review at another journal.

Book review submissions should be entered as such into the submission portal and will be directed to the Book Review Editor, Brian Cogan. Ideas about book reviews can be sent to Dr. Cogan at bcogan@molloy.edu. Pedagogy articles should be 2,500-3,500 words and should be submitted through the portal, which will notify the Pedagogy Editor, Alexander Kuskis. Questions or ideas about pedagogy articles should be sent to Dr. Kuskis at kuskis@gonzaga.edu.

General questions about submissions should be directed to Joshua D. Hill, Editorial Assistant, at hillj5@duq.edu.

First given in 2009, the Institute of General Semantics awards the S. I. Hayakawa Book Prize to the most outstanding work published in the past five years on topics of direct relevance to the discipline of general semantics, and includes a cash award of $1,000.

Awarded annually by the Institute of General Semantics, its presentation precedes the 64th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture (AKML) at the Princeton Club in New York City held October 21st, 2016.

• Click here for previous winners and more information on the Hayakawa Book Prize.

Competition for the 2016 Hayakawa Book Prize is open to any book published in 2010 or later on topics and themes of direct relevance to the discipline of general semantics, including time-binding, abstraction, language, symbols, meaning, communication, media, perception, consciousness, epistemology, scientific method, etc.

To nominate a book, send a letter of nomination and three copies of the book by August 31, 2016 to:

Martin H. Levinson
c/o Institute of General Semantics
Attn: Hayakawa Prize
72-11 Austin Street #233
Forest Hills, NY 11375

For more information, contact Martin H. Levinson, President of the Institute of General Semantics, by phone at (212) 729-7973 or via email at hayakawaprize (at) generalsemantics.org.

• Click here for more information on the 64th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture.

Call for Papers: "Language in Thought and Action"

A 2-Day Symposium Sponsored by the Institute of General Semantics
October 22-23, 2016

Submission Deadline: August 31, 2015

The Institute of General Semantics is sponsoring the 2-day symposium titled "Language and 'Reality,'" co-sponsored by the New York Society for General Semantics and the Media Ecology Association. The symposium will be hosted at the Princeton Club in New York City October 22-23, 2016.

The symposium will follow the 64th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture, which will be presented on Friday evening, October 21st, 2016, by psychiatrist and writer Iain McGilchrist (author of  The Master and His Emissary).

• Click here for more information on the symposium and 64th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture.

Email papers, proposals, and inquiries on this year's theme, "'Language in Thought and Action" by August 31, 2016, to presentations [at] generalsemantics.org and/or mandklevin [at] aol.com.

For more information, contact Martin H. Levinson, President of the Institute of General Semantics, by phone at (212) 729-7973 or by mail at:

Martin H. Levinson
c/o Institute of General Semantics
Attn: 2016 Symposium
72-11 Austin Street #233
Forest Hills, NY 11375