Kevin LaGrandeur is Associate Professor of English at the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT), and Director of Technical Writing Programs. He began exploring the intersections between digital technology, culture, philosophy, and English studies in the early 1990’s and was an early adopter of digital technology in the English classroom. Dr. LaGrandeur has written many articles and conference presentations on digital culture; Artificial Intelligence and ethics; and literature and science. His publications have appeared in journals such as Computers & Texts, Computers and the Humanities, and Science Fiction Studies; in books such as Eloquent Images: Word and Image in the Age of New Media; and in popular publications such as United Press International (UPI), where he recently published an Op-Ed piece on future protocols for developing Artificial Intelligence, called “The Mars Landing and Artificial Intelligence.” His recent book on the premodern cultural history of AI is titled Androids and Intelligent Networks in Early Modern Literature and Culture (Routledge, 2012). His more recent conference presentations have been on transhumanism and the posthuman.
Dr. LaGrandeur has been awarded a variety of grants based on his work, including a Summer NEH grant to participate in a research seminar on computers and English Studies(1995), a fellowship from Hofstra University’s Center for Teaching Excellence to develop a training course for faculty on computer-assisted instruction (1997), a software grant from the Daedalus Corporation to help develop computer-interactive writing courses at Hofstra University (1993-96), an NYIT/New York State DAV Grant (2001) to develop online course materials for Disabled Veterans, an NYIT Center for Teaching and Learning with Technology Grant (2001-2002) to develop Web Design/Web Communication curriculum, and a $25,000 grant from the European Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency for research into the ethics of robotics, particularly the ethical and philosophical underpinnings of recent efforts to develop an artificial conscience for robots; he was also a participant in the NYIT/NY State Virtual Learning Space Grant (fall 2002) to help develop online training site for NY State teachers, and has been awarded several grants to work on the book mentioned above. He has been on the educational technology committees of two universities, spent two years as the chair of one of them, and was also on the educational technology grant review committee for NYIT.
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Artificial Slaves: Androids and Intelligent Networks in Early Modern Literature and Culture
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