Plenary Speakers

The International Conference on the Book will feature plenary sessions by some of the world’s leading thinkers and innovators in the field, as well as numerous parallel presentations by researchers and practitioners.

Garden Conversations

Plenary Speakers will make formal 30-minute presentations. They will also participate in 60-minute Garden Conversations – unstructured sessions that allow delegates a chance to meet the speakers and talk with them informally about the issues arising from their presentation.

Please return to this page for regular updates.

The Speakers

José Francisco Álvarez

José Francisco Álvarez (1950) is Full Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science at the National Distance University of Spain (UNED), Madrid. He was Research Fellow at Darwin College, Cambridge, and Vice Chancellor at UNED. His research subjects include Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Bounded Rationality, Social Networks and Philosophy of Technology. Some of his publications include: The Fabric of Bounded and Expresive Rationality; Responsability, Trust and Human Models; Bounded Rationality in Dialogic Interactions; Rational Choice and Bounded Rationality; Cibercitizenship, Culture and Public Goods (Arbor 2009). Additionally, with Javier Echeverría he has published “Bounded Rationality in Social Sciences” (Poznan Studies, 2008) and Languages in Knowledge Society (Arbor, 2008).

Javier Celaya

Javier Celaya is the vice president of the Spanish Digital Magazines Association (ARDE), member of the Executive Board of the Digital Economy Association of Spain and CEO and founder of Dosdoce.com, an online portal analyzes the use of the new technologies in the cultural sector and publishes annual studies related to trends in the cultural sector: “Social Networks Management Guide”; “Book digitalization trends in Spain”; “Web 2.0 trends in museums & art galleries” and “The role of communication in book promotion”, among others.

Javier is author of several books (“Corporate blogging”, “Corporate strategies in the web 2.0”, “Business Communication 2.0”, etc.) and writes daily in the Spanish digital cultural trends focused blog Comunicación Cultural. He also has written several articles in EL PAIS and Publishing Perspectives: Why Spanish Publishing is the Next Digital Battleground and Is “Spotify for Books” Possible?

He also is the co-director and adjunct professor of the Digital Publishing Master at the University of Alcala in Madrid. Javier holds a Master’s Degree in International Relations from Columbia University in New York and Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Boston College.

Jeffrey R. Di Leo

Jeffrey R. Di Leo edits American Book Review and symploke, and is professor of English and Philosophy and Dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of Houston-Victoria. His books include Morality Matters: Race, Class, and Gender in Applied Ethics (2002), Affiliations: Identity in Academic Culture (2003), On Anthologies: Politics and Pedagogy (2004), If Classrooms Matter: Progressive Visions of Educational Environments (2004, with W. Jacobs), From Socrates to Cinema: An Introduction to Philosophy (2007), Fiction’s Present: Situating Contemporary Narrative Innovation (2008, with R. M. Berry), Academe Degree Zero: Reconsidering the Politics of Higher Education (2010), Federman’s Fictions: Innovation, Theory, and the Holocaust (2010), Terror, Theory and the Humanities (2012, with U. Mehan), and Neoliberalism, Education, and Terrorism: Contemporary Dialogues (2012, with H. Giroux, S. McClennen, and K. Saltman).