Access
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Acquisition Information
Existence and Location of Originals
Processing History
Processing Note
Historical Background
Collection Scope and Content Summary
Collection Arrangement
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections and Archives, University of California, Irvine
Libraries
Title: Mark Poster papers
Creator:
Poster, Mark
Identifier/Call Number: MS.C.018
Physical Description:
3.6 Linear Feet
(5 boxes) and 1.03 GB of electronic records
Date (inclusive): 1967-2009
Abstract: This collection includes the print and
electronic teaching and research papers of Mark Poster, Professor of History and Film &
Media Studies at the University of California, Irvine.
Language of Material: Collection materials are in
English, French, Korean, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, German,Chinese,Turkish and
Swedish.
Access
The collection is open for research. Access to files covered by California personnel
records legislation is restricted for 50 years from the latest date of the materials in
those files. Access to student records is restricted for 75 years from the latest date of
the materials in those files. Special Collections and Archives policy places access
restrictions on material with privacy issues for a specific time period from its date of
creation. Restrictions are noted at the file level.
Series 1. Born digital files, 1985-2009 is available for research on
Calisphere (metadata-only). Researchers can request access to files from
Calisphere.
Publication Rights
Property rights reside with the University of California. Copyrights are retained by the
creators of the records and their heirs. For permission to reproduce or to publish, please
contact the Head of Special Collections and Archives.
Preferred Citation
Mark Poster papers. MS-C018. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries,
Irvine, California. Date accessed.
For the benefit of current and future researchers, please cite any additional information
about sources consulted in this collection, including permanent URLs, item or folder
descriptions, and box/folder locations.
Acquisition Information
Gift of Mark Poster, 2009.
Existence and Location of Originals
External media, received digital object number DIG001
Processing History
Born digital files processed by Audra Eagle Yun and Matthew McKinley, February 2013.
Professional papers processed by Alexandra Bisio, August 2013.
Processing Note
The processing of this collection was funded by a donation by Rosalyn Laudati and Jim
Pick.
Historical Background
Mark Poster was Professor of History and Film & Media Studies at the University of
California, Irvine, and also taught in the Critical Theory Emphasis. Additionally, he had
appointments in the Department of Information and Computer Science and the Department of
Comparative Literature. He authored or edited more than 17 books and 90 articles on European
intellectual history, the social and cultural theory of electronically mediated information,
postmodernism, and critical theory, among other subjects.
His books include
The Utopian Thought of Restif de la Bretonne
(1971, electronic reprint, 2000),
Existential Marxism in Postwar
France: From Sartre to Althusser
(1976),
Critical Theory of
the Family
(1978),
Sartre's Marxism (1979),
Foucault, Marxism and History: Mode of Production vs. Mode of
Information
(1984, 1985),
The Mode of Information
(1990),
The Second Media Age (1995),
Cultural History and Postmodernity (1997),
The Information
Subject
(2001),
What's the Matter with the Internet?
(2001), and
Information, Please: Culture and Politics in the Age of
Digital Machines
(2006), and
Deleuze and New
Technology
(2009).
Mark Poster earned his B.S. (1962) in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and his
M.A. (1965) and Ph.D. (1968) in History from New York University. After two years at Cooper
Union (1967-1969), he came to UCI as Assistant Professor in 1969. Poster died on October 10,
2012.
Collection Scope and Content Summary
This collection includes the print and electronic teaching and research papers of Mark
Poster, Professor of History and Film & Media Studies at the University of California,
Irvine. The collection comprises professional papers and electronic records created between
1967 and 2009 documenting Poster's career, including teaching materials; research notes;
drafts of writings; publications; correspondence, including emails relating to his
association with the Critical Theory Institute at UCI; and audio and video tapes of
interviews given. The collection is composed of materials that reflect Poster's work in
critical theory, cultural and intellectual history, film and media studies, and the social
and cultural theory of electronically mediated information.
Collection Arrangement
This collection is arranged in two series:
- Series 1. Born digital files, 1985-2009, 1.03 GB of electronic records.
- Series 2. Professional papers, 1967-2009, 3.6 linear feet.
Series 1. Born digital files is arranged in four subseries:
- Subseries 1.1. Administrative records for the Critical Theory Institute at the
University of California, Irvine, 1988-1999.
- Subseries 1.2. Book drafts, 1988-2009.
- Subseries 1.3. Lectures, 1986-2007.
- Subseries 1.4. Research files, 1985-2008.
Series 2. Professional papers is arranged in eight subseries:
- Subseries 2.1. Academic review materials, 1999-2003.
- Subseries 2.2. Bibliographic cards, circa 1970s-1980s.
- Subseries 2.3. Correspondence, 1973-2006, undated.
- Subseries 2.4. Interviews and public appearance, 1989-2005, undated.
- Subseries 2.5. Lectures, 1969-2007, undated.
- Subseries 2.6. Photographs, circa 1970s-1980s.
- Subseries 2.7. Recorded lectures,1973, 1980.
- Subseries 2.8. Writings and publications, 1967-2008.
Unless otherwise noted in the series and subseries descriptions, the arrangement scheme
for the collection was imposed during processing in the absence of a usable original
order.