Image description: An advertisement for a book launch for Technoskepticism: Between Possibility and Refusal by The DISCO Network. On the left, the book cover features a pale blue background with abstract dark shapes at the bottom. To the right, the words “BOOK LAUNCH” stand prominently in large, blue capital letters above details for the event.

The Department of Digital Humanities and the Centre for Digital Culture at King’s College London are delighted to host the launch of the DISCO Network’s Technoskepticism: Between Possibility and Refusal (Stanford University Press, 2025). The event will be chaired by Dr. Zeena Feldman (KCL, Senior Lecturer in Digital Culture).

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 racialized 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.

Register to attend either in-person or online via the events page from King’s College London. For in-person attendees, the launch will be hosted at King’s College London, Strand Campus, room TBC, WC2R 2LS.