Aims
The research cluster's aim is to bring together academics from a range of backgrounds with an interest in technology and new media in order to explore and discuss recent and ongoing research.
We welcome all students (undergraduate and postgraduate), staff, and visiting scholars to attend and participate in any/all sessions. We especially would like to emphasise multidisciplinary collaboration, not only between departments of the University of Cambridge, but with other universities. As such, most of our events will be hybrid – available both online and offline.
The cluster is supported by Cambridge Digital Humanities
Academic Year 2022-23
This year, the cluster will cover a wide range of research topics including digital labour, digital media cultures, organised movements on social media, media representations, and media audiences. An overarching theme of all events will be to critically address the implications for society and social theory that result from empirical observations of change. We especially wish to promote innovative work that explores new methodologies and/or under-studied aspects of digital platforms.
The cluster will host three types of sessions: discussions (members will discuss a stimulating piece of research), presentations (members will present ongoing research or recently published pieces), and speakers sessions (speakers from other institutions will be invited to discuss their work).
Easter Term 2023
Vulnerability and Control: Queer Men Using Smartphones to Negotiate Their Cultures of Intimacy with Dr Jamie Hakim (King’s College London)
Thursday 4th May 17:00-18:30 @ SG2, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Rd and Online
Dr Jamie Hakim (King’s College London) will discuss queer men’s use of smartphones to negotiate their culture of intimacy, locating such practises in a historical conjuncture consumed by ‘poly-crisis’ (Tooze, 2021) and defined by a desire for ‘control’. He will consider the politics and ethics of this desire for control, and argue that both conjunctural analysis and research on digital intimacies are mutually enriched when put in conversation with each other. More information and register here.
Hierarchies of Hate: The History and Context of Online Disinformation with Prof. Shakuntala Banaji (LSE)
Monday 15th May 17:00-18:00 @ Syndics Room, 17 Mill Ln. and Online
Connecting half a decade of empirical research into the circulation of disinformation and misinformation about minoritised and racialised groups in countries as disparate as Brazil, India, Myanmar, and the U.K. with histories of colonial and caste violence, Prof. Shakuntala Banaji (LSE) examines the intersectional politics of hate online through close textual analysis and interviews with experts in the field. More information and register here.
Platform Labour with Dr Niels van Doorn (University of Amsterdam)
Monday 22nd May 14:00-15:00 Online
Details to be announced soon; keep an eye out on our Twitter (@CamTechMedia) or join our mailing list.
Lent Term 2023
Meet-and-greet lunch
Weds 8th February 12:30-14:00 in the Open Basement area of the David Williams Building (Law Faculty, Sidgwick Site).
Network with peers from other disciplines who share an interest in technology and new media research, and have your say on the agenda for other sessions. Refreshments will be provided.
Work-in-Progress sessions:
Performing Political Neutrality in Digital Democracy Projects
Friday 3rd March 12:00-13:00 @ Syndics Room, 17 Mill Lane.
Civic technology projects try to create non-political online tools. This… isn’t easy. Creating data about parliaments and governments is hard to do without bringing along the political context that creates that data. In this short talk, Alex Blandford (Oxford) will look at the ways that data is made, and the anxieties about its use, creation, reuse, and ownership.
Communication in Criminal Governance: The Role of Digital Tools
Friday 10th March 13:00-14:00 @ Syndics Room, 17 Mill Lane.
In Latin America, millions of urban residents live under some form of extra-legal governance. Daniel Rincon-Machon (Cambridge) will talk about how looking at digital communication may help us understand the capacity of criminal groups to enforce social order. He will discuss how the literature on criminal governance can be put into conversation with concepts developed in media studies, and his research plans to study this phenomenon both online and offline
Contact:
Twitter (@camtechmedia) here, Facebook (Facebook group and Facebook page) or subscribe to the mailing list.
For more information, please email the conveners – Sophie Mary (sm2597@cam.ac.uk) and Marisa Tangeman (mt877@cam.ac.uk).