 | Since 1952, the Institute of General Semantics has sponsored the annual Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture (AKML), a presentation given by a distinguished individual on a topic of interest to the field of general semantics. |
History
In 1952, two years after founder Alfred Korzbyski’s sudden death, Institute of General Semantics Director M. Kendig initiated an annual program to remember Korzybski and celebrate the continuation of his goals for human development and progress.
This program became known as the Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture Series, or “AKML.” Kendig viewed this series as a means not only to remember Korzybski, but also to celebrate the contributions of those whose work is scientifically oriented and promotes what Korzybski termed “time-binding,” the unique human ability to build on the achievements of others through the use of symbols and languages.
Prestige
An impressive lineup of speakers has added significant prestige to the AKML, which over the years has featured prominent authors, scientists, psychologists, educators, and individuals from varied backgrounds.
A few of the more recognizable names include Abraham Maslow, Buckminster Fuller, Albert Ellis, Steve Allen, Leonard Shlain, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Lou Marinoff, Ellen Langer, J. Allan Hobson, Robert Carneiro, James Van Allen, Karl H. Pribram, Deborah Tannen, Sherry Turkle, and others.
Past AKML Speakers
A complete list of past speakers, along with transcripts of their presentations and audio and video recordings (where available), is below. The listed affiliations for each speaker were current on the date of the lecture and may have since changed.
2020s
2022 - Janna Levin
The Claire Tow Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Barnard College of Columbia University, Founding Director of Sciences at Pioneer Works, a cultural center in Brooklyn, and editor-in-chief of the virtual magazine, Pioneer Works Broadcast, which publishes across disciplines from art to science. She has contributed to an understanding of black holes, the early universe, chaos, and the shape of the universe. Her books include How the Universe Got Its Spots, Black Hole Blues, and a novel, A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines, which won several prominent prizes for fiction. Her latest book is Black Hole Survival Guide.
Lecture Title: "Black Hole Survival Guide"
At the speakers request, the lecture has not been made public, but IGS members can access raw footage of the event.
2021 - Siva Vaidhyanathan
Robertson Professor of Media Studies and the director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia, Cultural historian, media scholar, and lecturer
Lecture Title: “Making Meaning through Facebook: A Semantic and Visual-Culture Tour through Social Media”
2020 - Corey Anton
Author and professor of communication studies at Grand Valley State University
Lecture Title: “Lessons Learned from Lee Thayer”
2010s
2019 - Nadine Strossen
John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law at New York Law School, First woman national president of the American Civil Liberties Union (1991-2008)
Lecture Title: “Hate Speech, Counterspeech …”
2018 - Lance Strate
Professor of Communication and Media Studies and Associate Chair for Graduate Studies at Fordham University
Lecture Title: “Amazing Ourselves to Death: Contemplating the Technological Tempest of Our Times”
Introduction & Presentation Videos:
2017 - Terence P. Moran
Professor of Media Ecology, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, at New York University
Lecture Title: “Crazy Talk, Stupid Talk: Politics in America 2017”
2016 - Iain McGilchrist
Psychiatrist and writer
Author of The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World
2015 - Andrew Keen
Author of The Internet Is Not the Answer
Lecture Title: “The Internet Is Not the Answer”
2014 - Jack El-Hai
Author of The Nazi and the Psychiatrist: Hermann Göring, Dr. Douglas M. Kelley, and a Fatal Meeting of Minds at the End of WWII Lecture Title: “The General-Semantics Psychiatrist and the Nazi”
2013 - Terrence Deacon, Ph.D.
Professor of biological anthropology at University of California, Berkeley
Author of Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter
2012 - Shawn Lawrence Otto
Science advocate, humanitarian, and screenwriter
- Author of Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America
2011 - Sherry Turkle
Abby Rockefeller Mauze Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Author of Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other
2010 - Deborah Tannen
University Professor and Professor of Linguistics at Georgetown University.
Author of many books and articles about how the language of everyday conversation affects relationships, including You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation (New York Times Best Seller)
2009 - Mary Catherine Bateson
President of the Institute for Intercultural Studies.
Author of eleven books including Full Circles, Overlapping Lives: Culture and Generation in Transition; With A Daughter’s Eye: A Memoir of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson; and most recently, Willing to Learn: Passages of Personal Discovery
2008 - Douglas Rushkoff
Teacher and documentarian
Author of Screenagers, host of Frontline’s The Persuaders
Read the Lecture | Listen to the Lecture (Intro by Lance Strate) | Listen to the Lecture (Alternate Version)
2007 - Leonard Shlain
Chairman of Laparoscopic Surgery at the California Pacific Medical Center
Author of The Alphabet Versus The Goddess, Art & Physics, and Sex, Time & Power
2006 - Renee Hobbs
Director, Media Education Lab, Temple University, Founder of the Alliance for a Media Literate America (AMLA)
Author of Reading the Media
Read the Lecture | Listen to the Lecture
2005 - Robert L. Carneiro
Curator, Anthropology Division, American Museum of Natural History
Author of Evolutionism in Cultural Anthropology and The Muse of History and the Science of Culture
2003 - Sanford I. Berman
Motivational speaker and nightclub hypnotist, Student of Dr. Irving J. Lee, Long-time supporter of general semantics
Editor of Logic and General Semantics and author of Words, Meanings and People
Read the Lecture | Listen to the Lecture
2002 - J. Allan Hobson
Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Director of the Laboratory of Neurophysiology at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center
Author of The Dreaming Brain, Sleep, Dreaming as Delirium, and, with Jonathan A. Leonard, Out of its Mind: Psychiatry in Crisis: a Call for Reform
2001 - Lou Marinoff
Chair of Philosophy, City College of New York, Founding President of the American Philosophical Practitioners AssociationAuthor of Plato, Not Prozac!
2000 - Robert P. Pula
Author of A General-Semantics Glossary
Director Emeritus, Institute of General Semantics
1990s
1999 - Ellen J. Langer
Professor of Psychology, Harvard University
Author of Mindfulness and The Power of Mindful Learning
1998 - Theodore R. Sizer
Educator and author of Horace’s Hope, Horace’s School, and Horace’s Compromise
1997 - Robert Anton Wilson
Author of The Illuminatus Trilogy and Prometheus Rising
1996 - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Professor of Human Development, University of Chicago
Author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience and Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention
1995 - Nicholas Johnson
Former Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Professor of Law, University of Iowa College of Law
Son of Dr. Wendell Johnson, the author of the popular general semantics text People in Quandaries
1994 - Lotfi A. Zadeh
Professor Emeritus and Director of the Berkeley Initiative in Soft Computing
Known for his contributions to machine intelligence, particularly through “Fuzzy Logic”
1993 - William Lutz
Professor of English and Director of the English Graduate Program at Rutgers University, Camden, New Jersey
Author and “doublespeak” authority
1992 - Steve Allen
Author, entertainer, songwriter
Creator of NBC’s Tonight Show
1991 - Albert Ellis
President and Founder, Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy, now the Albert Ellis Institute
Author of numerous books on personal adjustment
1990 - Warren M. Robbins
Founder, Director Emeritus and Senior Scholar, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art
1980s
1989 - William V. Haney
Educator and author
Authority on interpersonal communication
1988 - Jerome Bruner
Psychologist
Research Fellow, Russell Sage Foundation
1987 - Richard W. Paul
Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Critical Thinking and Moral Critique, Sonoma State University, California
1986 - George F. F. Lombard
Louis E. Kirstein Professor Emeritus of Human Relations and former Associate Dean of the Graduate School of Business, Harvard University
1985 - Russell Meyers (See Also: 1958)
Neurologist, Neurosurgeon, author
1984 - Karl H. Pribram
Professor of Neuroscience, Stanford University
1983 - Allen Walker Read
Emeritus Professor of English, Columbia University
1982 - Robert R. Blake & Jane Srygley Mouton (Co-Presenters)
Robert R. Blake
President , Scientific Methods, Inc. Now Grid International, Inc.
Jane Srygley Mouton
Vice President, Scientific Methods, Inc. Now Grid International, Inc.
1981 - Thomas Sebeok
Distinguished Professor of Linguistics and Semiotics, Indiana University
1980 - Barbara Morgan
Photographer, painter, and author
1970s
1979 - Don Fabun
Author and lecturer
Formerly Director of Publications, Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation
Author of Communications: The Transfer of Meaning
1978 - Elwood Murray
Emeritus Professor of Speech Communication, University of Denver
1977 - Ben Bova
Author and Editor of Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact Magazine
1976 - Roger W. Wescott
Professor of Linguistics and Anthropology, Drew University
1975 - Harley C. Shands
Director, Department of Psychiatry, Roosevelt Hospital, New York
1974 - Kenneth G. Johnson & Neil Postman (Co-Presenters)
Kenneth G. Johnson
Professor of Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Neil Postman
Professor of Media Ecology, New York University
Author of numerous books on media and culture
1973 - J. Samuel Bois, Elton S. Carter & Walter Probert (Panel)
“General Semantics: Whence 1920…Where 1973…Whither”
Panel with:
J. Samuel Bois
Viewpoints Institute, Los Angeles. Author of The Art of Awareness
Elton S. Carter
Dean for Graduate Studies, University of Nebraska
Walter Probert
Professor of Law, University of Florida, Gainesville
1972 - George Steiner
Extraordinary Fellow, Cambridge University
Internationally-known writer, scholar, literary critic and analyst of culture
1971 - Henry Margenau
Professor of Physics and Natural Philosophy, Yale University
1970 - Gregory Bateson
Associate Director for Research, Oceanic Institute, Waimanalo, Hawaii
1960s
1969 - Lancelot Law Whyte
Pioneering scientist-philosopher, lecturer, and author of The Next Development of Man, The Unconscious Before Freud, and The Unitary Principle in Physics and Biology
1968 - Alastair M. Taylor
Professor of Political Studies and Geography, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario
President of the Canadian Association for American Studies
1967 - J. Bronowski
Author of Science and Human Values and The Identity of Man
1966 - Alvin M. Weinberg
Physicist
Director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee
1965 - Henry Lee Smith, Jr.
Professor of Linguistics and English, Chairman, Department of Anthropology and Linguistics, State University of New York at Buffalo
1964 - Joost A. M. Meerloo
Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst
Associate Professor of Psychiatry, New York School of Psychiatry
1963 - Henri Laborit
Chief of Research of the Health Services of the Armies of France
Director of Physio-Biological Research and Physician-in-Chief of the National Navy
American Public Health Associations’ Albert Lasker Award, 1957
1962 - Harold G. Cassidy
Professor of Chemistry, Yale University
Author of The Sciences and the Arts: A New Alliance
1961 - Robert R. Blake
Professor of Psychology, University of Texas
Author of The Managerial Grid and co-founder of Managerial Grid Theory
1960 - Warren S. McCullough
Research Laboratory of Electronics, M.I.T.
Author of Finality and Form
1950s
1959 - Charles M. Pomerat, William J. Fry & James A. Van Allen (Symposium)
“Extending the Parabola”
Symposium with:
Charles M. Pomerat
Professor of Cytology and Director of the Tissue Culture Laboratory, University of Texas, Galveston
William J. Fry
Research Professor of Physics and Director of Biophysical Research Laboratory, University of Illinois
James A. Van Allen
Professor and Head, Department of Physics, State University of Iowa
1958 - Russell Meyers (See Also: 1985)
Professor of Surgery, College of Medicine, State University of Iowa
Chairman of Division of Neurosurgery, University of Iowa Hospitals
Author of “Preface to the 4th edition of Science and Sanity“
1957 - Abraham Maslow
Professor of Psychology, Brandeis
Author of Motivation and Personality
1956 - Clyde Kluckhohn
Professor of Anthropology, Harvard University
Author of Mirror for Man and What is Science?
1955 - R. Buckminster Fuller
Distinguished engineer, mathematician, inventor, designer, mechanic, writer and philosopher
Author of Nine Chains to the Moon and Dymaxion Air-Ocean World Map
1954 - F. S. C. Northrop
Professor of Philosophy and Law, Yale University
Author of The Meeting of East and West and The Logic of the Sciences and Humanities
1953 - F. J. Roethlisberger
Professor of Human Relations, Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration
Author of Management and Morale
1952 - William Vogt & M. F. Ashley Montagu (Co-Presenters)
William Vogt
Author of Road to Survival
National Director of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America
M. F. Ashley Montagu
Professor of Anthropology, Rutgers University
Author of On Being Human and Statement on Race
Past Classes & Seminars
Summer Seminar-Workshops
The Institute has sponsored summer seminar-workshops for over 50 years that focus on teaching theory and practical applications of general semantics.
The goal of these programs is to apply general semantics to help you restructure your view of yourself and the world to create more satisfying personal and professional relationships. Attendees can participate in lectures, small group discussions, exercises, demonstrations, sensing practices, and social events to experience the rewards of “living through” general semantics.
2023 Introduction to General Semantics In-Person Seminar
Held on June 19th-21st at Fordham University's Lincoln Center Campus in New York City
Instructors: Mary P. Lahman, Lance Strate, Corey Anton
Day 1 The Map is Not the Territory, Morning Session: Introductions, Science and the Nature of Reality, Understanding Perception; Afternoon Session: Sensory Awareness; Structural Differential and the Abstraction Ladder, The Map is Not the Territory; Day 2 The Word is Not the Thing, Morning Session: Symbol vs. Signal, Language and Thought, Metaphor; Afternoon Session: Verbal/Meta Awareness, Non-Aristotelian Principles of Thought; Abstracting, Reification, and the IFD Disease; Day 3 The Organism-As-A-Whole-In-Its-Environment, Morning Session: Extensional Orientation and Devices; Semantic Relaxation, Non-Elementalism; Afternoon Session: Facts and Statements; Fact-Inference Test; The Semantic Environment
Images from the Seminar:
2006 Seminar - Workshop Notebook Materials
These materials come from the June 2006 Seminar-Workshop participant notebook. They include an abundance of lessons and instruction for teaching and learning general semantics.
Overview
Spiral Overview
Scientific Approach
Abstracting, Evaluating
Verbal Awareness
Sensory Awareness
Integration
- The Semantic Person
- (Some) Basic Understandings of General Semantics
- Lyrics, “No Such Thing” by John Mayer
- Quotes for Living at the “Height of the Times”
- Extra: “Response Side Semantics”
- Extra: Lee’s “The Semantic Man” transcript
- Extra: Lyrics, “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield
- Extra: Changing Attitudes Towards Korzybski’s General Semantics (A.W. Read)
- Extra: Changing Human Nature (D. Bourland)
Presentation Videos
The following video clips (.wmv) come from past seminar-workshop presentations.
- Milton Dawes (1992)
- Susan Presby Kodish (1990)
- Stuart Mayper (1992)
- Robert P. Pula (1990)
- Robert P. Pula (1990)
- Charlotte Read (1990)
Archival Footage
The following videos and supplementary material provide insight into what past summer seminar-workshops hosted by the Institute of General Semantics were like for the participants.
A Silent Film from the 1961 Summer Seminar-Workshop
Over 16 days in mid-August, 1961, the Institute of General Semantics hosted its first-ever West Coast Summer Seminar-Workshop.
Held at the University of California at Santa Barbara, the 1961 seminar-workshop had 58 enrollees — the most ever to that date — and was regarded then as “probably the most productive seminar-workshop in the Institute’s history.”
Event Roundup
M. Kendig, Charlotte Schuchardt Read, O. R. Bontrager, Russell Meyers, Catherine Minteer, Edward L. Gates, Nathaniel Hollister, Elwood Murray, Michael Walsh, and Kenneth Johnson staffed the seminar-workshop in various capacities. J. Talbot Winchell, in whose name is one of the distinctive awards offered by the Institute of General Semantics, was in attendance. Former host of The Tonight Show, Steve Allen, was among the registrants.
Click here to purchase the General Semantics Bulletin Nos. 28 & 29 from the IGS Store.
Video
Participant Karl Hinkle kept a “movie record” of the seminar-workshop.
Captured in the footage are teachers and participants in lectures, downtime during the intense seminar-workshop, awareness training led by Charlotte Schuchardt Read, and a glimpse at the participant photo shoot.
This silent film lasts nearly 22 minutes before it starts to loop briefly at the end.
Photo
The photo below depicts those in attendance at the 1961 Summer Seminar-Workshop. Click the photo to enlarge it.
The Institute of General Semantics 1961 Summer Seminar-Workshop at the University of California at Santa Barbara
First Row
KARL HINKLE, Lockheed Missles & Space Co., Sunnyvale, Cal. GENEVIEVE OSLUND, Probation Officer, Los Angeles County. GEORGE STANLEY, El Camlno College, Cal. GENE ELBINGER, Senior Probation Officer, Los Angeles County. E. F. MCDANIEL, Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy (Ret.), Oakland, Cal. JAMES VAUGRAN, University of Pittsburgh, Pa. TALBOT WINCHELL, South Pasadena, Cal. JAMES NEWMAN, (Pres.) Advsnced Seminars, Los Angeles. GEORGE COOK, Saskatchewan Teachers College, Saskatoon, Canada. LILLY MILIGAN, Grtffith Co., Los Angeles. NORMAN HARRINGTON, San Quentin Prison, Cal. PAUL COOPER, Central Management Services, Los Angeles.
Second Row
GRANT ANGELL, Audio-Dynamics Corp., Portland, Oregon. ANN MARTINOVICH, John Muir School, San Francisco. EVAN AIKEN, Bendix Corp., North Hollywood. EDEN RYL, Communication and Sales Consultant, Hollywood. MARTHA YORKSTON, Everett Junior College, Washington. JOAN THROOP, Poughkeepsie, New York. MONTGOMERY THROOP, IBM Laboratory, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. JAMES MOFFETT, Philips Exeter Academy, New Hampshire. FRED BISSELL, MD, Aurora, Ohio. ROLLY HILLIARD, Psychtatric Social Worker, Los Angeles. ETHEL LONGSTREET, Viewpoints Inc., Beverly Hills, Cal.
Third Row
BLANCHE SANDERS, Santa Cruz, Cal. ROBERT HASLER, Stockbroker, Palm Beach, Florida. JUDITH HARRINGTON, (student) Radcliffe College, Mass. [Staff: EDWARD L. GATES, Institute of General Semantics. NATHANIEL HOLLISTER, MD, Dayton, Ohio. CHARLOTTE SCHUCHARDT READ, New York. O. R. BONTRAGER, PhD, California (Pa.) State College (1962-Arizona State University). M. KENDIG, Institute of Gereral Semantics. RUSSELL MEYERS, MD, FACS, State University of Iowa. KENNETH JOHNSON, PhD, University of Wisconsin.] JOYCE COOTZ (graduate student) San Diego state College. MEYER BRAUDE (Colonel, USA), Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana. MARY MORAIN, San Francisco. HELEN RINGROSE, County Welfare Dept., Riverside, Cal. CLINTON HEATH (USN, Ret.), Westinghouse Electric Corp., Sunnyvale, Cal. JUNE HEATH, Palo Alto, Cal.
Fourth Row
BURYL PAYNE, Boeing Airplane Co., Seattle, Wash. CHARLES TAYLOR, PhD, Fresno State College, Cal. JOSEPH STEWART, Salida, Colorado. ROBERT BUCKLEY, Paisley School, Oregon. KENNETH HOOVER, PhD, Arizona State University. MARY MORRIS, Arizona State University, THOMAS WEISS, PhD, Arizona State University. MARC HOWENSTEIN (student) University of California, Santa Barbara. EUGENE PECKHAM, Western Executive Training Services, Burlingame, Cal. HOWARD CAMPBELL, EdD, Fresno State College, Cal. JOAN SCHOETTLER, Lincoln Jr. High School, Santa Monica, Cal. IONE HARRINGTON, San Francisco. KENNETH MANSUY, Picatinny Arsenal, Dover, New Jersey.
Fifth Row
GLORIA SMITH, Bay Area Air Pollution Control, San Francisco. MARCO JOHNSON, Boeing Airplane Co., Seatlle, Wash. BOB WANDERER, freelance writer, San Francisco. ORVIL WALKER, Lockheed Aircraft Corp., Sunnyvale, Cal. CHARLES BARTL, PhD, Portland State College, Oregon. WEBSTER AUGUSTINE, Boeing Airplane Co., Seattle, Wash. ROGER ESHLEMAN, Shimer College, Mount Carroll, lllinois. BETTY HOLLINGSWORTH, law office, San Francisco.
Not In Picture
Registrants: STEVE ALLEN, Encino, Cal. JOHN HOTCHKISS, MD, Kaiser Hospital, San Francisco. J. GORDON ROBERTS, (Pres.) Roberts Dairy Co., Omaha, Nebraska. MICHAEL TURETSKY, Los Angeles.
Visiting Lecturers: CATHERINE MINTEER, Santa Monica, Cal. ELWOOD MURRAY, PhD, University of Denver. MICHAEL WALSH, SeD, Beverly Hills, Cal.
Reports
A year after the 1961 Summer Seminar-Workshop, participants Robert Wanderer and Ethel Longstreet recounted their experiences.
Click here to read their reports from the General Semantics Bulletin Nos. 28 & 29 (1961-1962).
A Silent Film from the 1948 Summer Seminar-Workshop
The following film was made during the 1948 Summer Seminar-Workshop. It features the founder of the Institute of General Semantics, Alfred Korzybksi.
Summer 1948 Seminar-Workshop Film (featuring Allfred KorzybskI) (1948)
A Recap Video of the 1992 Summer Seminar
The following recap was drawn from video recorded at the 1992 Summer Seminar at Alverno College in Milwaukee, WI.
Past Conferences & Symposia
Below is a selection of past conferences and symposia sponsored or co-sponsored by the Institute of General Semantics, along with roundups that include photos, video, papers, publicity, and more.
2020s
2024 - Non-Aristotelian Perspectives, Ecological Approaches, and the Anthropocene II Online Symposium
- April 27, 2024
- Via Zoom
- View the symposium event page
Event Roundup
Held online via Zoom on April 27, 2024, featuring 35 participants from all around the world.
Videos
- April 27, 2024
- Via Zoom
- View the symposium event page
Event Roundup
Held online via Zoom on April 27, 2024, featuring 35 participants from all around the world.
Videos
2023 - Non-Aristotelian Perspectives, Ecological Approaches, and the Anthropocene
- Featuring the 71st Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture by Lera Boroditsky
- October 27-29, 2023
- Players Club in New York City
- View the AKML event page
- View the symposium schedule
- View the photo gallery
Event Roundup
Held at the Players Club in New York City from October 27-29, 202d, cosponsored by the New York Society for General Semantics, the Media Ecology Association, the International Bateson Institute, the Tomkins Institute, and the 404 Festival of Art and Technology. Attendees listened to over 45 presenters at the general semantics symposium titled Non-Aristotelian Perspectives, Ecological Approaches, and the Anthropocene.
Videos
2023 - Ecologies of Mind, Media, and Meaning II Online Symposium
- April 29, 2023
- Via Zoom
- View the symposium event page
Event Roundup
Held online via Zoom on April 29, 2023, featuring 30 participants from all around the world.
Videos
2022 - Ecologies of Mind, Media, and Meaning
- Featuring the 70th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture by Janna Levin
- October 7-9, 2022
- Players Club in New York City
- View the AKML event page
- View the symposium schedule
Event Roundup
Held at the Players Club in New York City from October 7-9, 2022, cosponsored by the New York Society for General Semantics, the Media Ecology Association, the International Bateson Institute, and the 404 Festival of Art and Technology. Attendees listened to over 25 presenters at the general semantics symposium titled Ecologies of Mind, Media, and Meaning.
Videos
2022 - Science, Sanity, and the Semantic Environment II Online Symposium
- June 25, 2022
- Via Zoom
- View the symposium event page
Event Roundup
Held online via Zoom on June 25, 2022, featuring 25 participants from all around the world.
Videos
2022 - Science, Sanity, and the Semantic Environment
- Featuring the 69th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture by Siva Vaidhyanathan
- October 1-3, 2021
- Presented at the Players Club in New York City
- View the AKML event page
- View the symposium event page
Event Roundup
Held at the Players Club in New York City from October 1-3, 2021, attendees listened to over 25 presenters at the general semantics symposium titled Science, Sanity, and the Semantic Environment.
Videos
2020 - The Semantic Environment in a Time of Uncertainty
- Featuring the 68th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture by Corey Anton
- October 9-11, 2020
- Held virtually over Zoom
Event Roundup
Presented virtually over Zoom from October 9-11, 2020, attendees listened to nearly 30 presenters at the general semantics symposium titled The Semantic Environment in a Time of Uncertainty.
Videos
2010s
2019 - The Tyranny of Words
- Featuring the 67th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture by Nadine Strossen
- October 11-13, 2019
- Princeton Club, New York, NY
Event Roundup
At the Princeton Club in New York City from October 11-13, 2019, attendees listened to more than 25 presenters at the general semantics The Tyranny of Words symposium.
Videos
2018 - Language and Meaning in the 21st Century
- Featuring the 66th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture by Terence P. Moran
- October 26-28, 2018
- Princeton Club, New York, NY
Event Roundup
At the Princeton Club in New York City from October 26-28, 2018, attendees listened to more than 25 presenters at the general semantics Crazy Talk, Stupid Talk symposium.
Videos
2017 - Crazy Talk, Stupid Talk
- Featuring the 65th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture by Terence P. Moran
- October 27-29, 2017
- Princeton Club, New York, NY
Event Roundup
At the Princeton Club in New York City from October 27-29, 2017, attendees listened to more than 25 presenters at the general semantics Crazy Talk, Stupid Talk symposium.
Videos
2016 - Language in Thought and Action
- Featuring the 64th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture by Iain McGilchrist
- October 21-23, 2016
- Princeton Club, New York, NY
Event Roundup
At the Princeton Club in New York City from October 21-23, 2016, attendees listened to more than 30 presenters at the general semantics Language in Thought and Action symposium.
Videos
2015 - Language and 'Reality'
- Featuring the 63rd Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture by Andrew Keen
- October 2-4, 2015
- Princeton Club, New York, NY
Event Roundup
At the Princeton Club in New York City from October 2-4, 2015, attendees listened to over 20 presenters at the general semantics Language and “Reality” symposium.
Videos
2014 - Making Sense through Time-Binding
- Featuring the 62nd Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture by Jack El-Hai
- October 24-26, 2014
- Princeton Club, New York, NY
Event Roundup
At the Princeton Club in New York City from October 24-26, 2014, attendees listened to over 25 presenters at the general semantics symposium titled Making Sense through Time-Binding.
Videos
2013 - Language and Symbol Use in the Twenty-First Century
- Featuring the 61st Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture by Terrence Deacon
- October 25-27, 2013
- Princeton Club, New York, NY
Event Roundup
At the Princeton Club in New York City from October 25-27, 2013, attendees listened to over 25 presenters at the general semantics symposium titled Language and Symbol Use in the Twenty-First Century.
Videos
2012 - Language and Symbol Use in Politics and Other Arenas
- Featuring the 60th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture by Shawn Lawrence Otto
- October 26-28, 2012
- Princeton Club, New York, NY
Event Roundup
At the Princeton Club in New York City from October 26-28, 2012, attendees listened to over 20 presenters at the general semantics symposium titled Language and Symbol Use in Politics and Other Arenas.
Videos
2011 - Communicating in the 21st Century
- Featuring the 59th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture by Sherry Turkle
- October 28-30, 2011
- Princeton Club, New York, NY
Event Roundup
At the Princeton Club in New York City from October 28-30, 2011, attendees listened to over 20 presenters at the general semantics symposium titled Communication in the 21st Century.
Videos
October 10 - Photography by Michael DamesPhotographer Michael Dames shot the presentations delivered during the Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture. | October 29 - 31 - Photography by Mariusz HanFordham University student Mariusz Han, SJ, photographed many presenters at the symposium. |
2000s
2009 - Across the Generations: Legacies of Hope and Meaning
- Featuring the 57th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture by Mary Catherine Bateson
- September 11-13, 2009
- Fordham University Lincoln Center Campus, New York, NY
Event Roundup
At Fordham University’s Lincoln Center Campus from September 11-13, 2009, a large number of attendees listened to over 70 presenters at the international general semantics conference titled Across the Generations: Legacies of Hope and Meaning.
Photo Galleries
Three photographers covered the weekend’s events.
September 11 - Janet Faller SassiPhotographer Janet Faller Sassi captured images from the Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture | September 11 - 13 - Mariusz HanFordham University student Mariusz Han, SJ, photographed many presenters at the conference. |
Robert Barry Francos
Photographer Robert Barry Francos also documented the conference with photos. He has created three galleries of photos from the conference.
2008 - Creating the Future: Conscious Time-Binding for a Better Tomorrow
- Featuring the 56th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture by Douglas Rushkoff
- November 14-16, 2008
- Fordham University Lincoln Center Campus, New York, NY
Event Roundup
On November 14, 2008, the Institute of General Semantics hosted the 56th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture at the Princeton Club in New York City. Douglas Rushkoff delivered the Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture, titled “Playing the Future: Towards a Creative Society.”
On November 15-16, 2008, IGS followed with a two-day symposium at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center Campus titled Creating the Future: Conscious Time-Binding for a Better Tomorrow.
The Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture
Douglas Rushkoff, teacher and documentarian, author of Screenagers, and host of Frontline’s The Persuaders, presented the 56th Alfred Koryzbksi Memorial Lecture to a large, attentive crowd at the Princeton Club in New York City. His lecture, titled “Playing the Future: Towards a Creative Society,” is below.
New York Press Article
Brian Heater wrote an account the Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture that ran in the New York Press on November 18th, 2008. It is now offline, but the text is preserved below.
Generational Semantics: Writer Douglas Rushkoff at the Institute of General Semantics Dinner
by Brian Heater
The writer and media theorist Douglas Rushkoff would, of course, have been remiss had he not addressed the polarized nature of his audience right off the bat. The front half of the room was monopolized by circular tables covered in white tablecloths, surrounded be gray-haired diners who had arrived at the Princeton Club at 6 p.m. to participate in the $90-a-plate meal. They made up a large portion of The New York Society for General Semantics, a 62-year-old offshoot of the Institute of General Semantics, which boasts the hopeful mission statement of, “improv[ing] one’s ability to evaluate the world and one’s place in it.”
The list of previous speakers at the event included such diverse luminaries as Buckminster Fuller, Steve Allen, Robert Anton Wilson—a list on which, the club’s acting president noted thoughtfully, Rushkoff’s name surely didn’t seem out of place.
Toward the back of the room were rows of chairs set up for the 8 o’clockers, those who poured into the room two hours later, forgoing that $90 meal, eager to watch the Ecstasy Club author in action. A motley assortment that were at least half the median age as those seated up in front.
“This is a really interesting mix,” Rushkoff smiled, at the top of his speech. “The half over here came because you’re members of the Institute of General Semantics and pay dues and get newsletters, and the other half of these people probably got a Facebook message…There’s two very different paths. Of course they wouldn’t have been able to come, were it not for the generosity of the [front] group. You guys, by paying your dues, made this possible. Instead of seeing your contribution as the privilege to get this thing, you decided that your contribution was about the privilege to share this thing.”
It was a perfect entry point into a talk that would have no doubt immediately been written off as socialist rhetoric by “Joe the Plumber” and his ilk. Over the next two hours, Rushkoff traced the present-day economic collapse all the way back to the Renaissance and the birth of the self, largely succeeding in bringing the room’s binary attendance together, save for the occasionally alienating video game metaphor—which, while effective in illustrating his points using references to programming language and mods, was no doubt a touch baffling to those finishing up their meals, scratching heads at references to virtual worlds. Still, in all it was a rather compelling talk by one of our most prominent counter-cultural media theorists, particularly when he referred to president-elect Obama (of whom Rushkoff admitted he was certainly a fan) as, “playing president.” Whether or not you agreed with such sentiments, there was likely nary a person in the room not drawn in by Rushkoff’s assertions.
Blog Posts
Lance Strate
IGS Executive Director Lance Strate wrote two entries in his blog titled Blog Time Passing about the weekend. The first was his personal account of the weekend, and the second was a corrigenda from the AKML.
Read Lance Strate’s first blog post about the weekend Read Lance Strate’s second blog post about the weekendRobert Barry Francos
Not only did Robert Barry Francos photograph the weekend’s events, but he also provided a personal account of the weekend in his blog titled FFanzeen: Rock ‘n’ Roll With Integrity.
Read Robert Barry Francos’s account of the weekendMore photos by Robert Barry Francos are above in the Photo Gallery section.
Video
In the following video, Martin H. Levinson presents Allen Flagg the 2008 J. Talbot Winchell Award.
Photo GalleryNovember 14 - 16Special thanks to Robert Barry Francos for photographing the weekend’s events. |
2007 - Mind and Consciousness: Understanding/Reconciling/Integrating Symbol Systems and Nervous Systems
- Featuring the 55th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture by Leonard Shlain
- October 26-27, 2007
- The Princeton Club and Fordham University Lincoln Center Campus, New York, NY
Event Roundup
The Institute of General Semantics was one of five sponsoring organizations for the 55th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture and All-Day Symposium held on October 26-27, 2007, at the Princeton Club and Fordham University respectively. The Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture featured Dr. Leonard Shlain, M.D. whose lecture was titled “Right Brain/Left Brain: Hemispheric Lateralization and its Effects on Religion, Culture, Gender and History.” Shlain is the author of three best-selling books and a professor of laparoscopic brain surgery in California.
The symposium, titled “Mind and Consciousness: Understanding/Reconciling/Integrating Symbol Systems and Nervous Systems,” featured twelve speakers whose topics ranged from “Practical Fairy Tales for Everyday Living” to “Right Brain, Left Brain and How They Affect our Food Choices” to “Understanding the Decalogue through General Semantics and Media Ecology.” Before the sessions began, New York Society for General Semantics Vice President Martin H. Levinson was presented with the Media Ecology Association’s Suzanne K. Langer Award for his book Sensible Thinking for Turbulent Times.
The room where the symposium was held was filled to capacity. Attendees at the Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture and the symposium were in general agreement that both these events were highly worthwhile learning experiences.
Photo GallerySpecial thanks to Katherine Liepe-Levinson for photographing the event and editing the images. October 27 |
2006 - Making Sense Conference
- Featuring the 54th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture by Renee Hobbs
- October 27-28, 2006
- Arlington Hilton Hotel, Arlington, TX
Event Roundup
From October 27-28, 2006, the Institute of General Semantics sponsored the Making Sense Conference at the Arlington Hilton Hotel in Arlington, Texas. Renee Hobbs delivered the 55th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture titled “Literacy in the 21st Century,” the culmination of a weekend of over 20 presentations from national and international presenters.
Preceding the conference from October 24-26, the Institute of General Semantics hosted a special Pre-Conference Workshop on “Making Sense,” which offered participants a unique opportunity to review some of the basic principles of general semantics, then apply those principles toward major issues of the day. The Pre-Conference Workshop was held at Read House, the headquarters for the Institute of General Semantics in Fort Worth, Texas.
The Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture
On the evening of October 28, 2006, Renee Hobbs, Director of the Media Education Lab at Temple University, Founder of the Alliance for a Media Liberate America (AMLA), and author of Reading the Media, presented the 54th Alfred Koryzbksi Memorial Lecture to a large crowd as the apex of the Making Sense Conference at the Arlington Hilton Hotel in Arlington, Texas. Her lecture, titled “Literacy in the 21st Century,” is below.
Videos
Photo Gallery |
Papers & Presentations
The following papers and presentations are pre-publication drafts from the Making Sense Conference. A number of the items below were later edited and published in the General Semantics Bulletin, No. 73 (2006).
Download GSB 73 from the IGS Store
2005 - Envisioning the Emerging Future
- Featuring the 53rd Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture by Robert L. Carneiro
- April 22-23, 2005
- American Museum of Natural History, Linder Theater, New York, NY
Videos
2003 - Confronting the Challenges of Conflicting World Views
- The Twelfth International Conference on General Semantics
- Featuring the 52nd Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture by Sanford I. Berman
- October 31 – November 2, 2003
- Las Vegas, NV
Event Roundup
From October 31 to November 2, 2003, the Institute of General Semantics sponsored the Twelfth International Conference on General Semantics in Las Vegas, Nevada. Titled Confronting the Challenges of Conflicting World Views, the conference was co-sponsored by the International Society for General Semantics and the New York Society for General Semantics. It featured the 52nd Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture, delivered by Sanford I. Berman.
The Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture
Sanford I. Berman, motivational speaker, nightclub hypnotist, editor of Logic and General Semantics and author of Words, Meanings and People, delivered the 52nd Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture titled “On the Teaching of General Semantics.”
Papers & Presentations
The following papers were accepted and their authors were invited to present them at the conference.
Prior Conferences & Symposia
The Institute of General Semantics has sponsored congresses and conferences dating back to 1935.