Announcing the Log Out! The Technopolitics of Refusal Symposium
The ICCIT is pleased to announce Log Out! The Technopolitics of Refusal. This full-day symposium will invite scholars and graduate students into an open discussion on tactics of refusal within our current era of techno-capitalism. The event is hosted by the ICCIT and organized by professors Julie Chen, Alessandro Delfanti, and Sarah Sharma.
We live in a media landscape marked by 24/7 engagement, extractive gig labour practices, and algorithms embedded with patriarchal and white supremacist values. Within this context, potential tactics of technological refusal are often simultaneously over-abundant and difficult to materialize. This symposium invites scholars from a diversity of backgrounds to discuss what can be logged out from and how we might seize the opportunity to do so.
Log Out! will feature presentations from the following invited scholars:
- Nicole Charles, University of Toronto
- Leopoldina Fortunati, University of Udine
- Jilly Boyce Kay, Loughborough University
- Gavin Mueller, University of Amsterdam
- Sarah Sharma, University of Toronto
- Rinaldo Walcott, University of Buffalo
In addition to these featured speakers, doctoral students from the University of Toronto have been invited to deliver 5-minute "theory pill" talks that expand on a single concept related to the symposium theme. These theory pills will covers topics as diverse as idleness, going stealth, tang ping, infertility, and gambiarra.
The Log Out! symposium will take place on March 6, 2024 at the University of Toronto Mississauga. A pre-conference film screening of Machines in Flames with director Andrew Culp will take place the evening before at St George Campus. Full details and registration links for both events can be found on the event website.
