source: rubra

Sun 6.9.
10:30 AM – 12:30 PM

Brucknerhaus, Mittlerer Saal

10:30 AM – 11:00 AM
Michael Schmidt-Salomon

11:00 AM – 11:30 AM
Maja Petrovic-Steger

11:30 AM – 12:00 PM
Derrick de Kerckhove

12:00 PM – 12:30 PM
Round Table: Michael Schmidt-Salomon, Maja Petrovic-Steger, Derrick de Kerckhove

Michael Schmidt-Salomon (DE), Dr. phil., freelance philosopher and writer, musician and social scientist, co-founder and spokesman of the board of the Giordano Bruno Foundation, which counts many renowned scientists, philosophers and artists among its members. His numerous publications include the novel “Stollbergs Inferno” (“a philosophical dime novel on hell, revolts and the absurd,” 2003), a manifesto of philosophical principles “Manifest des evolutionären Humanismus. Plädoyer für eine zeitgemäße Leitkultur” (2006), the satirical lexicon “Die Kirche im Kopf – Von Ach Herrje! bis Zum Teufel” (2007) and the children’s book “Wo bitte geht’s zu Gott? fragte das kleine Ferkel” (2007).

He is familiar to the wider public among other things through his publicity actions, including the project he initiated for the Catholic “World Youth Day” in Cologne (2005), called “Religionsfreie Zone: Heidenspaß statt Höllenqual!” (“Religious-Free Zone: Pagan Fun, not Hellish Agony!”) as well as through the campaign he spearheaded for the Council of Ex-Muslims (2007): “Wir haben abgeschworen!” (“We have renounced religion!”). Schmidt-Salomon has received many honors (including the Topitsch Award of the Kellmann Foundation for Humanism and Enlightenment). As a naturalistically thinking philosopher, he is often featured in the press, radio and television.

Maja Petrovic-Steger (UK). Dr Maja Petrović-Šteger is a Research Fellow at Peterhouse. She teaches for the Department of Social Anthropology, and directs studies in Archaeology and Anthropology for Peterhouse students at the University of Cambridge (UK). Her research explores various contexts where bodies – whether living; dead, or in the form of medically usable remains – become the sites of economic, legal, political, scientific and artistic attention. In 2007 she started working with etoy. Ever since she acts as an etoy ethnographer and etoy agent.

Derrick de Kerckhove (CA). Director of the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto; Ordinary Professor at the University of Naples Federico II; holder of the Papamarkou Chair at the Library of Congress in Washington.