[-empyre-] HASTAC and OAS

[Timothy Conway Murray]

OAS Co-Organizes Sixth International Conference of the Humanities, Arts
Science and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory in Peru  April 24, 2014
 
The Organization of American States (OAS), the Government of Peru and the
Humanities, Arts Science and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory
(HASTAC) today inaugurated the Sixth Conference of the institution, whose
central theme is ³Hemispheric Pathways: Critical Thinkers in International
Networks,² and which aims to deepen collaboration to drive economic and
social development in the region.

The Executive Secretary for Integral Development of the OAS, Sherry Tross,
highlighted that this is the first time that HASTAC has held its annual
conference outside the United States, and praised the fact that it chose a
country from Latin America and the Caribbean for the meeting. HASTAC is a
network made up of more than 15,000 humanists, artists, social science
researchers, scientists, technicians and visionaries committed to the
development of creativity and critical understanding of the new
technologies in life, learning and society.

Executive Secretary Tross said the conference represents a great
opportunity for cooperation between the academy and politicians to share
knowledge and experiences, concerns and ideas on possible solutions to
contribute to the development of innovative policies and strategies for
development. ³The intellectual firepower of the distinguished scholars and
researchers from world class universities in North America, Latin America
and the Caribbean; experts, artists and educators assembled here in this
room is impressive,² she said.

The senior OAS official said the conclusions of the Conference will serve
to contribute ideas to the post 2015 Development Program of the United
Nations, currently being debated by regional organizations across the
world. ³As countries are in the process of formulating the post-2015
development agenda and focus increasingly on sustainable and inclusive
growth, partnerships for development will become even more important to
spur innovation and help find solutions to the profound challenges being
faced by countries,² she said.

Executive Secretary Tross said the OAS, with its political understanding
and HASTAC with its academic knowledge, could develop synergies in order
to promote development in the region. ³We must take advantage of this
unique opportunity to build bridges and close the gap between our two
worlds. We, at the OAS can bring to the attention of our hemispheric
authorities the resources of creative and critical thinking, science, art
and technology, available in spaces like HASTAC that can contribute to the
design and development of better and more effective policies and
programs,² she added. Tross also highlighted that the central theme of the
next OAS General Assembly will be ³Development with Social Inclusion,² and
said the choice of this theme is ³an implicit recognition that the
intellectual and practical framework for analysis of development should
perhaps be revisited to address economic and social development as a new,
joint paradigm.²

For her part the Minister of Culture of Peru, Diana Álvarez, said the
Conference will contribute to promoting multidisciplinary research,
creativity, and innovative thinking through the exchange of knowledge
between the countries of the region.

Minister Álvarez said ³the challenge we face is how to articulate new
technologies, the digital and interactive world, with the development of
the different sectors that are of great interest to our country like art
and culture, education, social identity, gender equality, and other areas
whose results can be strengthened and broadened.²

The Peruvian authority referred to the central theme of the meeting and
highlighted the interdisciplinary focus it proposes. ³I am sure that this
issue will help us to rethink concepts of development and technology, and
will help us to give better support to the new possibilities of innovation
and learning offered by the digital age as a catalyst of cultural
production,² she added.

In addition to the Department of Economic and Social Development of the
OAS <http://www.oas.org/en/sedi/desd/>, the Ministry of Culture of Peru
<http://www.cultura.gob.pe/>, and HASTAC <http://hastac2014.org/>, the
Conference, being held at the headquarters of the Ministry of Education in
Lima, Peru until Sunday April 27, is supported by the University of
Illinois Urbana-Champaign <http://illinois.edu/> and by RedClara
<https://www.redclara.net/index.php?lang=en>. The agenda of the Conference
is available here <http://hastac2014.org/conference-program/>.

Other participants in the symposium include the Director of Education of
the MacArthur Foundation, Constance Yowell; the Deputy Minister of
Cultural Patrimony and Cultural Industries of Peru, Luis Jaime Castillo
Butters; and the Founder of Alta Tecnologia Andina, José Carlos Mariátegui.


Timothy Murray
Professor of Comparative Literature and English
Director, Society for the Humanities
http://www.arts.cornell.edu/sochum/
Curator, Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media
http://goldsen.library.cornell.edu
A D White House
Cornell University,
Ithaca, New York 14853