October 4, 2023

Cultural and media historian to visit SVSU classrooms, speak at Roethke House

Visit is part of the Dow Visiting Scholars and Artists series at SVSU

A respected cultural and media historian will step into a symbol of Saginaw’s past as she explores the relationship between writing and the future of culture in a talk at the childhood home of acclaimed Saginaw poet Theodore Roethke.

Devon Powers, a professor of communication and media at the University of Michigan, will present “Future Tense: On Writing the Future of Culture” on Thursday, Oct. 5 at 7 p.m. at the Roethke House, 1805 Gratiot Ave., Saginaw. The talk is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Because of space limitations at the Roethke House, the lecture will also be accessible via Zoom. Register at https://www.friendsofroethke.org/visit/events/p/2023-speaker-series-devon-powers.

In her lecture, Powers will examine the role of journalists in shaping cultural understandings about the future. She will also discuss groundbreaking futurist authors, such as Alvin Toffler and Faith Popcorn.

Powers’s public lecture caps off a two-day visit to SVSU, where she will speak to students in a number of communication and history classes. 

Powers’s work focuses on consumer culture after World War II. Prior to joining the University of Michigan, she taught at Temple University and Drexel University in Philadelphia. She holds a Ph.D. in media studies from New York University and a B.A. in women’s studies and English from Oberlin College. Powers has developed a long record of research on cultural intermediation: the people, technologies, industries, and discourses that help culture to move through the world and acquire meaning.

Powers’s visit is part of the Dow Visiting Scholars and Artists Series at Saginaw Valley State University, which was established through an endowment from the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation to enrich our region’s cultural and intellectual opportunities.