Faculty Spotlight: Petersen Explores Technology’s Influence

New Century College lecturer and cultural studies doctoral student Zac Petersen’s research and teaching shines a spotlight on the intersection of technology, society and culture. These issues impact everyone, but many of us choose to ignore or avoid delving deeper into our relationship with technology. Petersen pushes his students to identify and understand the power and influence that exists in tiny devices that are often just a reach away.

In his spring class NCLC 475: Technological Dystopias, Petersen works with students to understand that the technology we use every day to research and write papers, listen to music or alert us to traffic delays carries far more important power.

Petersen said, “I want us to think about technology not by itself but also in connection to politics. We explore the relationship between technology and the cultural and political malaise that we see in society today.”

This is a weighty subject for 9 a.m. on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. But, for many, this issue follows us wherever we go---or wherever there’s coverage.

Petersen continued, “We are always excited about technology’s next best thing, but we are not always asking what it is for or who will it benefit. We need to see the relationship between technology and politics; to see technology’s affects on how society is organized into hierarchical structures.”

Smart phones, for instance, do more than enable us to send texts, take photos and check email on the fly.

Petersen asked, “What politics do they advocate? What laws do they dictate? What is the political effect of this device? We should observe the real effects that technology has on us.”

The class raises issues surrounding technology’s growth, our reaction and consumption of it, and the larger social and behavioral impacts it has on individuals. Petersen explores these and other related ideas in his doctoral thesis, which explores technology’s influence over our social and economic behavior.

Petersen cited Facebook, or other social media platforms and explained their multifaceted impacts. He said, “Facebook seems like a free-for-all platform but behind the scenes there is a calculated plan for control that taps into our culture of consumption. Social media tries to train us to be a new kind of consumer---influencing our desires and how we satisfy them. [Social media] is closing the gap between desire and the point of sale—which is just a click away.”

Petersen’s teaching spans a wide range of topics including literature, globalization and conservation. This semester, he is also teaching NCLC 210: Sustainable World. This course has a strong emphasis on experiential learning and introduces students to sustainability practices. As part of the course, each student is required to spend a minimum of 25 hours volunteering for a project that promotes sustainability.

Petersen said, “Students volunteer on or off campus at a whole range of places. I like that the students take ownership of what they are learning. They get excited about their projects and take real responsibility for their learning and experience.”

Petersen earned his M.A. in English literature from George Mason University and a B.A. in history and music from Gettysburg College.