Reception follows public program.
Livestream: https://dartgo.org/rethinkingwork

Rethinking Work in the Age of Distraction

Cal Newport ’04
Provost’s Distinguished Assoc. Prof, Georgetown Univ.
Summer 2023 Montgomery Fellow

Host: Jason Barabas '93
Director, The Rockefeller Center
Professor of Govt.

Moderator: Jennifer Jerit
Professor of Govt.

Co-sponsored by the Montgomery Fellows Program and The Rockefeller Center

Lecture Info:
Email, Slack, smart phones, open offices…we are in the golden age of interruptions at the office. Cal Newport pushes backs against workdays filled with distractions and urges us to find greater productivity, creativity, and meaning by working deeply.

Cal Newport ’04 is Provost’s Distinguished Assoc. Prof. of Computer Science at Georgetown Univ. Before arriving at Georgetown, he earned his PhD from MIT. Cal’s academic research focuses on the theory of distributed systems, with a particular interest in what can and cannot be solved in challenging settings. More recently, he’s also become involved in the emerging discipline of digital ethics. At Georgetown he is one of the founding faculty members of the new Center for Digital Ethics and the incoming director of the Computer Science Ethics and Society undergraduate major.

In addition to his academic work, Newport also writes for general audiences about the intersections of technology, work, and the quest to find depth in an increasingly distracted world. He is the author of seven books, including Deep Work (2016), which argues that the ability to focus without distraction is becoming increasingly valuable in an increasingly distracted world, Digital Minimalism (2019), which promotes the need to develop a personal philosophy of technology use, and, most recently, A World Without Email (2021), which proposes a bold vision for liberating workers from the tyranny of their inboxes. These titles include multiple New York Times bestsellers and have been translated into over 40 languages.

In addition to his books, Newport is on the contributing staff for The New Yorker, where he writes regularly about technology, and is the host of the popular podcast, Deep Questions with Cal Newport.

Dr. Jason Barabas ’93 is the Director of The Rockefeller Ctr. and a Govt. Professor. At Dartmouth, Barabas teaches and conducts research on American politics in the areas of political knowledge, deliberation, public policy, and democratic performance. His findings have been published in peer-reviewed journals including the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, and the Journal of Politics. After college, Barabas was appointed as an economic policy advisor for the Governor of Illinois, which fostered an appreciation for retail politics as well as pragmatic solutions to problems.

Jennifer Jerit studies public opinion and political communication, focusing on how people learn about the world and form political opinions. Her current research examines attitudes and behavior in the domain of climate change. She is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Experimental Political Science and a member of the Advisory Board for the American National Elections Studies. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the Economic and Social Research Council, and her published work appears in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Public Opinion Quarterly, and other journals.