CDE director Laura DeNardis delivers 2024 Convocation address to new GU students

On Saturday, August 24, 2024, CDE director Laura DeNardis, inaugural endowed chair in Technology, Ethics, and Society at the College of Arts and Sciences at Georgetown, delivered the welcome address to new students, on behalf of the faculty, at the University’s annual Convocation ceremony.

In her remarks, Dr. DeNardis noted that the rapid evolution of technology in the lifetimes of faculty, parents, and students has highlighted the urgent need to attend to a value “at the core of most cyber security concerns,” authenticity.

With the sheer volume of information and tools for expression now in existence, it is not surprising that humanity is also “struggling so much over what is authentic and true, human or machine,” Dr. DeNardis observed. In light of this challenge, she suggested, a university like Georgetown is uniquely able to help students navigate the world of technology by providing a firm grounding in human value and values.

Human authenticity is a critical response to this complex world and it’s something necessary for our own well-being: for our relationships and our pursuit of knowledge. It’s no wonder that the group of people that I interact with most on a daily basis–students–call authenticity the most important value poised to shape your lives, even higher than changing the world.

Laura DeNardis

Read more about Convocation and watch Dr. DeNardis’s address below: