From the techné pessimists of Ancient Greece to the computer to the loom-breaking Luddites to the firebombers of the Information Age, here's a look at the long—and fruitful—legacy of refusing the machine.
By @thomas-dekeyser.bsky.social, for BITM:
@itgodp.bsky.social has a series worthy of a listen. Here we discuss how writers can pursue equity in their writing, how to deal with the toxicity of reading alt-right works, and examples of anti-fascist writing. 🎧Listen now itgodp.libsyn.com or wherever you like to pod. #WriterSky #SciFiSky #SFF
Check out Asian Girlhood in the Shadows of US Empire! "Ambitious, thoroughly researched, & illuminating, Sharon N. Tran’s brilliant intervention adopts a novel feminist approach to the problematics of race & empire that lie at the heart of Asian American studies." -Daniel Y. Kim
tinyurl.com/36a54pp9
On Life Support: Eco-Dystopian Cinema in the Long 1970s by Matthew I Thompson @quickpickles.bsky.social is out today! Read about whales, plants, Soylent Green, fear and desire, and more!
www.upress.umn.edu/978151791733...
Author Olga Goriunova's lecture is on the first day of Miu Miu Literary Club during Milan Design Week! Goriunova is author of Ideal Subjects: The Abstract People of AI.
londontribune.co.uk/miu-miu-lite...
Collage with six book-cover crops from leading educational research titles; images include a purple monolith, illustrated instructor, street signs, school door handles. At bottom, black bar with white overlaid all-caps text: Collection: Education Research.
Get 30% off new and noteworthy releases during the American Research Education Association meeting #AERA2026. Use code MNAERA26 through June 1st: www.upress.umn.edu/aera26/
@aeraedresearch.bsky.social
Rather excited to see my book reviewed in the @newyorker.com by the excellent @chaykak.bsky.social.
"Dekeyser offers a tidy manifesto that may urge us on: “There is insufficient hatred for this technological world.” I could get a tattoo of that line, or at least use it as my iPhone background."
"The history of struggle against technology is also the history of struggle over what makes the human different from the machine." @chaykak.bsky.social on @thomas-dekeyser.bsky.social 's TECHNO-NEGATIVE in @newyorker.com : www.newyorker.com/culture/infi...
Here's the link to the free pdf of my new book The Inattention Economy: How Women of Color Built the Internet. Access is so important and I'm grateful that the press is platforming it as one file that is easy to download. www.upress.umn.edu/978081669906...
My contribution to the discussion about social media platforms is that everyone on the left should read this book
www.upress.umn.edu/978081669864...
Photo of Matthew I. Thompson's book On Life Support: Eco-Dystopian Cinema in the Long 1970s (2026). Location: arrayed against a small waterfall on hike in Pembroke, Virginia. It's resting against a rock.
Poster for Soylent Green. Bottom of the poster above the title shows the cat. Image is of a riot control truck scooping up people. The urban dystopia stretches in the distances with massive crowds and other trucks.
Interview with Matthew I. Thompson, author of On Life Support: Eco-Dystopian Cinema in the Long 1970s (2026): sciencefictionruminations.com/2026/04/02/e...
#scifi #sciencefiction #books
"Our working conditions demand not only theory adequate to them but also other genres of advocacy and activism entirely: op-eds; petitions; letters of concern, protest, and resignation; calls to action; interviews with higher ed reporters...."
Thomas Dekeyser @thomas-dekeyser.bsky.social in the NY Times on resistance to technology
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
If you do nothing else today, please tell the LGBTQIA+ kids in your life that you love them exactly the way they are.
"Opening an unsigned hatch, the group stares at their target: an immense nestling of fiber-optic cables linked to power cables." An excerpt from TECHNO-NEGATIVE: A LONG HISTORY OF REFUSING THE MACHINE, by Thomas Dekeyser @thomas-dekeyser.bsky.social @uminnpress.bsky.social pghrev.com/burning-down...
SCMS may be over, but you can still get 30% off film and media studies books! Use code MNSCMS26 through May 1st: www.upress.umn.edu/scms/ #SCMS26
Good morning, SCMS! Make sure to visit us in the exhibit hall! Say hello to my brilliant colleague Zenyse and check out our new media and cinema books! Not in Chicago? Visit www.upress.umn.edu/scms/ and get 30% #SCMS26
Me a month ago: I need to read up on historical reactions to emerging computer technologies.
@uminnpress.bsky.social: We gotchu, bestie.
(Published today: Techno-Negative by Thomas Dekeyser)
Four incredible books out today!
On shelves now! Thomas Dekeyser's @thomas-dekeyser.bsky.social radical history of technology told through acts of resistance, Techno-Negative: A Long History of Refusing the Machine
You can read an except on Lit Hub now: lithub.com/technophobe-...
Thrilled to see Hsuan L. Hsu's brilliant Olfactory Worldmaking out today! It explores the power of smell to build connections and transform our world www.upress.umn.edu/978151792123...
So excited to see Lisa Nakamura's @lnakamura.bsky.social The Inattention Economy out! It's "a groundbreaking rereading of the entire history of the internet," and "a bold and compelling interrogation of digital racial capitalism." --Grace Kyungwon Hong
www.upress.umn.edu/978081669906...
Congratulations to Dominic Smith, whose book, Bridging Benjamin: A Philosophy of Technology, Place, and Education, is out today! Bridging Benjamin is the newest in our Electronic Mediations series.
www.upress.umn.edu/978151791965...
Resistance against machines is shaped by class and the violence of the archive itself. Our book of the week traces arcs from Luddite loom-burners to French arsonists, viewing techno-negativity as both revolt and refusal.
By @thomas-dekeyser.bsky.social on @uminnpress.bsky.social
buff.ly/MLjXabq
A very simply drawn cartoon of a very round and green smiling frog squatting down and holding a ouija board. The background is blue and the text reads ‘fuck ChatGPT. I’m asking ghosts’
Mood for 2026, (the artist is Ainsley Drew, on Instagram)
Super excited to be heading to (balmy) San Francisco today for the #AAG #AAG26 meeting. We have a stellar lineup of new works in geography. I am so excited to showcase a 20th anniversary edition of Katherine McKittrick's (@demonicgrounds.bsky.social) field-defining DEMONIC GROUNDS.
