Hybrid Theory Conferences - History

History

The Hybrid Theory Conferences at Yale explored the convergence, inter-penetration and consequent hybridization of traditional and emergent communication mediums. The Conference founders initiated the series as a vehicle for (1) fueling the birth of new hybridized communication mediums and technologies, (2) developing new hybrid theories to explore the mutating hybridized social, cultural and economic forms enabled by these emergent mediums, and (3) as a localized attempt to break down the walls said to exist between town and gown: the Yale University community and the Town of New Haven's inhabitants and workers. Speakers at the different conference events included members of the Yale community (including professors, graduate students and plant operation workers), leading entrepreneurs behind local internet and software start-ups, futurists, media and marketing consultants, local businessmen, landlords, politicians, union representatives from Bridgeport Brewing, townspeople from New Haven and many others. The diversity of the speakers and the audiences at the Hybrid Theory Conference was both a sign of the Conference success reinvigorating the format of public speaking and an expression of the founders stated belief that the standard academic conference format contributed to the belief amongst non-academics that theory was either irrelevant or a "dying body."