The Beginning
This program was created on October 24, 1964 at the University of Toronto. At that time McLuhan was a lecturer there but he had received offers from other universities both in continental US and in Europe. John Kelly, president of St. Michal’s college, and Claude Bissell, president of The University of Toronto, got together and decided to double McLuhan’s salary and create the centre to keep him at the university.
Besides McLuhan other members included an architect, doctors, engineers, political scientists and a psychologist. They held seminars, lectures and workshops at the centre. In the 70’s McLuhans famous Monday night seminars filled the main room in the centre where McLuhan and one or more guests would share ideas, thoughts and explore truth and awareness. A dynamic community was formed at these seminars.
When McLuhan died in 1980 the University closed down the centre but it was soon reopened as a response to great demand from all levels in society. OISE Professor David Olsen became the first director.
In the summer of 1994 the program joined the Faculty of Information studies as a distinct research and teaching unit. The program continues to explore the cause and effect of new technology.
Mandate
“The McLuhan Program's mandate is to encourage understanding of the effects of technology on culture and society from theoretical and practical perspectives, and thus to continue the ground-breaking work initiated by Marshall McLuhan�
The McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology has three primary objectives:
1. To promote and extend the investigations of the "Toronto School of Communications" initiated by Harold Innis, Eric Havelock and Marshall McLuhan. Traditionally, the McLuhan Program primarily concentrated on the effects of information and communication technologies. Today, with the enormous changes affecting all aspects of human endeavour, the Program aims to use McLuhan-inspired thinking and perception tools to investigate the effects of new human processes on culture and society.
2. To provide a forum for the exchange of ideas among the global community of academics, professionals, and practitioners who share our passion for these investigations.
3. To offer a range of graduate credit courses and continual-learning non-credit seminars and courses that support these endeavours. (from the web page,…/about_history.htm)
Bibliography
The McLuhan Program In Culture and Technology
Camilla Hestdal 11:17, 29 Oct 2004 (EST)
