[Air-L] Book launch of Technoskepticism - Wednesday, 21 May at King's College London

[Zeena Feldman]

Dear friends and colleagues,

The Department of Digital Humanities<https://www.kcl.ac.uk/ddh/about/about> and the Centre for Digital Culture<https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/cdc> at King’s College London are delighted to invite you to the launch of the DISCO Network’s Technoskepticism: Between Possibility and Refusal (Stanford University Press).

When: Wed 21 May 2025 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM
Where: King's College London, Strand Campus, room TBC, WC2R 2LS
Registration: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/digitalhumanitieskcl/1659637

From Munchausen by Tiktok to wellness apps to online communities to AI, the DISCO Network explores the possibilities that technoskepticism can create. This is a book about possibility and refusal in relation to new technologies. Though refusal is an especially powerful mode—particularly for those who have historically not been given the option to say no—people of colour and disabled people have long navigated the space between saying yes and saying no to the newest technologies. Technoskepticism relates some of these stories to reveal the possibilities skepticism can create.

This launch event will consider three strands of technoskepticism: the first focused on disability, the creative use of wellness apps, and the desire for diagnosis; the second on digital nostalgia and home for Black and Asian users who produced communities online before home pages gave way to profiles; and the third focused on the violence inherent in A.I.-generated Black bodies and the possibilities for Black style in the age of A.I. Acknowledging how the urge to refuse new technologies emerges from specific racialised histories, the authors will also consider how care can look like an exuberant embrace of the new.

Please note this is a hybrid event. Guests are invited to join us in-person in London or online via MS Teams. Online attendees will be emailed a Teams link 24 hours before the event.


Warm wishes,
Zeena


Dr Zeena Feldman (she/her)
Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in Digital Culture
Director, Queer at King’s<https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/queeratkings>

King’s College London
Department of Digital Humanities<https://www.kcl.ac.uk/ddh/about/about>
The Strand, Chesham Building, 0.03
London WC2R 2LS

zeena.feldman at kcl.ac.uk
https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/dr-zeena-feldman