The Importance of Intersections: An Interview with Professor Fred Turner

Abstract

Professor Fred Turner earned his B.A. in English and American Literature at Brown University. Professor Turner then worked extensively as a journalist, writing for a variety of publications ranging from Nature to The Boston Sunday Globe Magazine. He went on to earn his M.S. in English at Columbia University and his Ph.D. in Communication in 2002 from the University of California, San Diego. He began teaching Communication at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management. He is the author of three books: The Democratic Surround: Multimedia and American Liberalism from World War II to the Psychedelic Sixties (University of Chicago Press, forthcoming), From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism (University of Chicago Press, 2006), and Echoes of Combat: The Vietnam War in American Memory (Anchor/Doubleday, 1996; 2^nd ed., University of Minnesota Press, 2001).

Currently, Professor Turner is the Director of the Stanford Program in Science, Technology, and Society. He began this role in 2011. He is also the undergraduate director of the Department of Communication at Stanford where he holds his position as Associate Professor.