Upcoming events

Event Calendar

    • 27 Oct 2023
    • 29 Oct 2023


    Registration is for 

    In-Person Attendance ONLY

    All IGS Members in Good Standing Will Receive Instructions on How to Livestream the Event Online Prior to the AKML


    The 71st Annual 

    Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture

    October 27th, 2023

    Co-Sponsored by the New York Society for General Semantics

    the International Bateson Institute

    the Media Ecology Association

    the Tomkins Institute

    and the 404 Festival of Art and Technology

    featuring

    Lera Boroditsky

    Dr. Lera Boroditsky is a Professor of Cognitive Science at the University of California San Diego. She previously served on the faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at Stanford University, and as editor in chief of Frontiers in Cultural Psychology. Her research is on the relationships between mind, world and language (or how humans get so smart). Her TED talk on how language shapes thinking has been viewed more than 19 million times. Boroditsky has been named one of 25 visionaries changing the world by the Utne Reader, and is also a Searle Scholar, a McDonnell scholar, recipient of a National Science Foundation Career award and an American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientist lecturer. She once used the Indonesian exclusive "we" correctly before breakfast and was proud of herself about it all day.

    Dr. Boroditsky's lecture is entitled:


    Language and Cognition

    Language allows a myriad ways to construe and describe everything from basic physical features of the world like colors and shapes to complex societal issues like crime or immigration. Professor Boroditsky will review the ways in which both the languages we speak, and the particular constructions we are exposed to within those languages, shape the ways we think. Linguistic frames create pathways for thinking, making some elements of an issue seem obvious while obscuring others. Her lecture will highlight some powerful ways that language shapes thinking, showing that sometimes a single word imbedded in a narrative can covertly shape the way we construe situations and reason about events.


    The AKML will be followed by our

    Non-Aristotelian Perspectives

    Ecological Approaches

    and the

    Anthropocene

    Symposium

    October 28th-29th, 2023

    Send inquiries regarding participation to president@generalsemantics.org

    We welcome papers and proposals that fit the symposium theme of Non-Aristotelian Perspectives, Ecological Approaches, and the Anthropocene, or that otherwise relate to the topics of general semantics, linguistics and semiotics, communication and culture, media ecology, science and the empirical  method, epistemology and phenomenology, cybernetics and systems theory, technology and society, art and perception, cognition and consciousness, evolution and emergence, health and human potential, etc.

    The lecture, dinner, and symposium are being held at the historic Players Club in Gramercy Park, Manhattan. 

    Registration is free for IGS members and their guests, but all attendees must be registered in advance in order to gain admittance to the club. More information regarding the dinner and symposium schedule will be made available at a later date.

    Please note that as an historic 18th century landmark, the site is not handicap accessible. Dress code is business casual and is strictly enforced, including no sneakers, shorts, ripped jeans, t-shirts).

    Go to the IGS Registration Page


Past events

30 Sep 2023 Combining: A Reading by Nora Bateson
10 May 2023 Art and Technology: An Overview of 20 Years of Cooperative Creative Practice
25 Apr 2023 Film Screening: The Frontier Gandhi
28 Mar 2023 Non-Aristotelian Reading Circle - Concerning Communication (Strate)
27 Jan 2023 Democracy and Media Ecology
20 Dec 2022 Non-Aristotelian Reading Circle
12 Dec 2022 Metaphors and Definitions: A General Semantics Look at the Language of Pain, Addiction, and the Opioid Epidemic
30 Nov 2022 Massaging the Medium: An Evening with Adeena Karasick
11 Nov 2022 Challenging Some Common-Sense Notions About Language
28 Oct 2022 The Issue of Is: A Commentary on The Case Against the Verb “To Be”
31 May 2022 Non-Aristotelian Reading Circle: People in Quandaries
30 Dec 2021 Non-Aristotelian Reading Circle - Language in Thought and Action
21 Apr 2021 The Intimacy of Enemies: When Maps and Territories are in Conflict and What We Can Do About It
02 Dec 2020 General Semantics and All That Jazz
29 Oct 2020 The Election and the Semantic Environment
10 Oct 2020 The Semantic Environment in a Time of Uncertainty Symposium
09 Oct 2020 The 68th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture
18 Mar 2020 The Intimacy of Enemies: When Maps and Territories are in Conflict and What We Can Do about It
19 Feb 2020 What Would Korzbyski Say? A Panel Discussion
24 Jan 2020 The State of the Semantic Environment 2020
18 Dec 2019 Mediating the Sexes: Women, Technology & Work in American Narrative
20 Nov 2019 The Language of Poetry 3
16 Oct 2019 Politics and Public Discourse 2019: A Panel Discussion
12 Oct 2019 The Tyranny of Words Symposium
11 Oct 2019 The 67th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture & Dinner
18 Sep 2019 General Semantics & GIFs: A Panel Discussion on Symbols & Social Media
05 Jun 2019 The Medium of the Sidewalk: Holocaust Commemoration and Stolpersteine
01 May 2019 Shine the Light: A Presentation by Seamus Kelleher in Story and Song
12 Apr 2019 General Semantics as a Conversing Activity: A Book Reading and Talk by Martin H. Levinson
20 Mar 2019 Between Two Worlds: A Reading and Conversation with Vasu Varadhan
20 Feb 2019 Theatre and Translation: A Reading and Conversation With Robin Levenson
18 Jan 2019 The State of the Semantic Environment
19 Dec 2018 What is Sanity? And Have We Lost It?
28 Nov 2018 The Reformed English Curriculum Revisited 2
27 Oct 2018 Language and Meaning in the 21st Century Symposium
26 Oct 2018 The 66th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture & Dinner
03 Oct 2018 Political Talk and Political Drama: Election 2018
27 Jun 2018 Tom Wolfe, Man of Letters, Man of Words: A Panel Discussion
02 May 2018 Language, Symbol, and the Theatre
04 Apr 2018 The Language of Poetry 2
21 Feb 2018 Trauma: Semantic Reactions, Reflections, Retentions
26 Jan 2018 The Reformed English Curriculum Revisited
06 Dec 2017 Play, Learning, and Language: A Panel Discussion
03 Nov 2017 Dark Nets and Disruptive Practices
28 Oct 2017 Crazy Talk, Stupid Talk Symposium
27 Oct 2017 The 65th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture & Dinner
04 Oct 2017 Words, Mind and Magic
08 Sep 2017 Media Ecology and the Human Condition: A Reading and Conversation With Lance Strate
26 Apr 2017 Between Map and Territory: The Art of the Tour Guide
29 Mar 2017 Systems, Contexts, Frames, and Patterns: A Reading and Conversation With Nora Bateson
01 Mar 2017 Science Fiction, Language, and General Semantics
08 Feb 2017 Post-Truth, Alternate Facts, & Fake News
30 Nov 2016 Music-Lyrics-Language: Bob Dylan and the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature
26 Oct 2016 Political Talk and Political Drama Part 2
22 Oct 2016 Language in Thought and Action Symposium
21 Oct 2016 The 64th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture & Dinner
14 Oct 2016 New York State Communication Association Conference
28 Sep 2016 The Language of Poetry
09 Sep 2016 Political Talk and Political Drama: Election 2016
02 Jun 2016 NYSGS Meet-Up


The Map (for The Players Club) is Not the Territory But...

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