Academics


Benjamin Peters
Disertation Title Reconstructing Information in Cold War Cybernetics and Social Sciences bjp2108@columbia.edu Curriculum Vitae Expected Ph. D. Graduation Date: May 2010

Summary of Research Interests Benjamin's dissertation studies how the concept of information changes over time, technologies, and societies, with special emphasis on postwar Eastern Europe and America. In it he situates the emergence of information as an increasingly prevalent yet overlooked keyword across natural, humanistic, and social scientific discourses concerning the management of knowledge and communication. Triangulating his interests in new media history, critical information studies, and comparative area studies, recent publications include, among others, "And Lead Us Not into Thinking the New is New: A Bibliographic Case for New Media History" (New Media & Society), "Betrothal and Betrayal: The Soviet Translation of Norbert Wiener's Early Cybernetics" (International Journal of Communications), and a book chapter on the Muhammad cartoon controversy titled "The Search Engine Democracy: Metaphors and Muhammad." A Visiting Fellow at the Information Society Project at Yale Law School, he also holds an MA from Stanford University and a BA, magna cum laude, from Brigham Young University, and enjoys life in Manhattan with his wife, Kourtney, and their growing family.

Benjamin Peters