[Air-L] 'After Technocolonialism' book panel discussion, Nov 26th 5-7pm @Goldsmiths

[Mirca Madianou]

Those of you in London may be interested in this book panel event at Goldsmiths, part of the School of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies Community Lectures. All welcome!

After Technocolonialism
A panel discussion about the book 'Technocolonialism: when technology for good is harmful' with Helen Kennedy, Jo Littler, Andrea Medrado, Nirmal Puwar and Mirca Madianou
Wednesday November 26, 5-7pm, Richard Hoggart Building (RHB) room 137A, Goldsmiths U of London
This event, part of the MCCS Community Lecture Series, marks the publication of the book ‘Technocolonialism: when technology for good is harmful’ (https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=technocolonialism-when-technology-for-good-is-harmful--9781509559022). 'Technocolonialism' charts how AI and data practices harm some of the world’s most marginalised people.
The panel title ‘After Technocolonialism’ is a provocation. Rather than suggesting the end of colonialism the panellists will explore the practices of resistance, the role of solidarity and participatory research and what ‘the digital good’ might look like. Charting the harms of technocolonialism is the first step towards imagining alternative futures.
The event takes place in the space of the exhibition 'Reimagining Digital ID' which showcases the artwork of Karen refugees from the Thailand-Myanmar border. Through their drawings, Karen refugees express their experiences with biometric systems and imagine alternative futures: https://www.gold.ac.uk/calendar/?id=15599
The panel will be followed by drinks and the opportunity to view and discuss the drawings with the research team.
Jo Littler is Professor of Culture, Media and Social Analysis at Goldsmiths. Her books include The Politics of Heritage (2005); Radical Consumption (2008); Against Meritocracy (2018); The Care Manifesto (2020); and Left Feminisms (2023). She is part of the editorial collective of Soundings: A Journal of Politics & Culture, a Trustee of the Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust,  a judge for the Stuart Hall Foundation Essay Prize and an elected fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Helen Kennedy FBA FacSS is Professor of Digital Society at the University of Sheffield, and Director of the ESRC Digital Good Network<https://digitalgood.net/> and the Living With Data<https://livingwithdata.org/> research programme, all in the UK. The Digital Good Network asks what a good digital society looks like and how we get there, centring the views of minoritised people in its answers to these questions. Her research focuses on how digital media are experienced by non-expert folk as part of their everyday lives, and how and whether they can be equitable. She is author/editor of four books and over 50 journal articles, as well as numerous publications for non-academic audiences.
Mirca Madianou is Professor in the School of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies and co-Director of the Migrant Futures Institute at Goldsmiths. Her research focuses on the social consequences of digital technologies, infrastructures and AI in global south contexts especially in relation to migration and humanitarian emergencies. She is currently PI on a British Academy grant on digital identity systems in refugee camps in Thailand (https://www.redid.net/). Her latest book is Technocolonialism: when technology for good is harmful<https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=technocolonialism-when-technology-for-good-is-harmful--9781509559022>.
Andrea Medrado is Associate Professor in Global Communications in the Department of Communications, Drama & Film, University of Exeter and Co-Vice President of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR). Andrea is currently Co-Investigator for the Project “The Social Foundations of Cryptography”, funded by EPSRC, and Principal Investigator on the Project “Favel IA”, funded by the INCT DSI Consortium in Brazil. Her book Media Activism, Artivism and the Fight Against Marginalisation in the Global South (with Isabella Rega) won the Outstanding Book Award 2024 from the ICA Activism, Communication and Social Justice Division.
Professor Nirmal Puwar has been at Goldsmiths University since 2004. Her classic book Space Invaders: race, gender and bodies out of place (2004), has been re-visited for a 20th anniversary issue in the European Journal of Cultural Studies<https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/ECS/current>. Live Methods (2013, co-edited with Les Back) has also been re-visited in an anniversary issue in Sociological Review<https://thesociologicalreview.org/announcements/news/live-methods-revisited/>. She is Co-Director of the Centre for Feminist Research and Co-Convenor of the MA Gender, Media, Culture. Puwar is a regular collaborator, seeking contact zones of exchange with and beyond academia, with her expertise in creative methods and spatial practice.


For directions to Goldsmiths please see here: https://www.gold.ac.uk/find-us/

Professor Mirca Madianou
Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies
Goldsmiths, University of London
New Cross, London
SE14 6NW
UK

email: m.madianou at gold.ac.uk<mailto:m.madianou at gold.ac.uk>
@madianou.bsky.social
http://www.gold.ac.uk/media-communications/staff/madianou/
https://www.gold.ac.uk/research/centres-units/migrant-futures-institute/

New Book: Technocolonialism: When Technology for Good is Harmful<https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=technocolonialism-when-technology-for-good-is-harmful--9781509559022> <https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=technocolonialism-when-technology-for-good-is-harmful--9781509559022>

New Project: Reimagining Digital ID<https://www.redid.net/>