Humanities, Research

Festival of 'uncharted' ideas coming to downtown Berkeley

By Public Affairs

dirks410b

What’s next in digital fabrication? Are we born racist, and could an app have saved Trayvon Martin? Why does wine matter? Can humans survive mass extinction?

photos of UCB speakers

Clockwise from top left: Berkeley scholars Brad DeLong, Ananya Roy, Paul Pierson, Nick Dirks and Joshua Bloom will speak at “Uncharted.”

Robots, technology, race, food justice and climate change are just some of the diverse and pressing topics up for discussion at “Uncharted: The Berkeley Festival of Ideas” Oct. 25 and 26. The downtown-Berkeley happening will feature a who’s who of speakers and lots of opportunity for participating “infovores” to interact, converse and imagine new futures.

UC Berkeley scholars figure prominently in the mix. Chancellor Nick Dirks will appear in conversation about the humanities with journalist Lance Knobel, cofounder of Berkelyside, which is producing the festival. City and regional planning prof Ananya Roy will speak on global poverty, while economist (and prolific blogger) Brad DeLong will share the stage with astronomer Joshua Bloom to discuss the provocative statement “I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.” Political scientist Paul Pierson and psychologists Paul Piff and Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton are three more Berkeley faculty on the speakers’ roster.

Attendees will hear from a host of others, too, from Moosewood Cookbook author Mollie Katzen to Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas and Kate Kendell, head of the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

Five hundred tickets are available for the two-day inaugural “Uncharted” festival. For information and to register, as well as to get first dibs on 2014 tickets, see the Uncharted website . (The UC Berkeley community is eligible for $120 off the regular ticket price. Use promo code UC13 to have the discount automatically applied.)