Assistant Professor Jeff Nagy, from the Department of Communication & Media Studies, has contributed to a new book entitled Technoskepticism: Between Possibility and Refusal. The book examines how refusing to engage in new technologies, and being skeptical of them, can lead to new possibilities in various communities.
A review from Kara Keeling, author of Queer Times, Black Futures, praises this collaborative work: “Collaboratively written in a lucid and engaging style, Technoskepticism is a generous gift, a vital and solely needed offering to those of us who work, study, and live in and through our crisis-ridden present.”
The book was a collaborative project by The DISCO Network (Digital Inquiry Speculation Collaboration Optimism Network) which is an intergenerational collective of researchers, artists, technologists, policymakers, and practitioners working together to challenge digital social and racial inequalities. Participants include David Adelman, André Brock, Aaron Dial, Stephanie Dinkins, Rayvon Fouché, Huan He, Jeff Nagy, Lisa Nakamura, Catherine Knight Steele, Rianna Walcott, Josie Williams, Kevin Winstead, M. Remi Yergeau, and Lida Zeitlin-Wu.
Jeff Nagy is an Associate Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Critical Data Studies in the Department of Communication and Media Studies at York University. Previously, he was a DISCO Network Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Michigan. He is a historian of computing and AI focused on the intersections between that history with disability and psychological and psychiatric science. He holds a PhD in Communication from Stanford University and his research has appeared in publications including Just Tech, New Media & Society, Technology & Culture.
The book was published by Stanford University Press.
