Democracy is in peril. A steady stream of evidence from around the world – from election interference and ubiquitous surveillance, to massive data abuses, coordinated mis/disinformation campaigns and rising extremism and online hate – point to our digital infrastructure as the culprit. Despite ranging and often antithetical responses for how (if at all) to fix it, it seems everyone from alt-right extremists to hackers; from policymakers to protestors is departing from this same premise: democracy is broken. But was it ever stable?

This reading group seeks to explore this current crisis of digital democracy and its assumptions through academic and journalistic accounts of how recent intersections of media and technology are reshaping democracy. These intersections include the continuation of social control through technology, the polarization of the public sphere through echo chambers, the pollution of information and media integrity, and the monopoly power of surveillance capitalism (to name only a few). By charting these recent “failures” the series aims to excavate the longstanding and structural features of our emerging digital landscape, paying particular attention to how they disproportionately impact traditionally upheld tenants of democracy, such as free expression and deliberation; visibility and self-representation, participation; access to unbiased information, and equality and social justice. Reciprocally, the series seeks to question how the promise and failure of democracy is itself mediated by those same technologies, including their broader social, political, economic and historical conditions.

The series will convene monthly to discuss a chosen reading with its author over zoom. The series is free and open to the public, and pdf/web readings will be shared with participants wherever possible.

Meeting Time: Last Thursday of every month at 12:00 – 1:00 EST

Monthly: Feb 25 / March 25/ April 29/ May 27/ June 24 / July 29 

Nov 26 : Astra Taylor

Jan 28: Tim Hwang

Feb 25: Becca Lewis

This reading group is led by our Research Director, Sonja Solomun.

Advance registration is required here, and priority access is given to McGill students. Upon registering, participants will be sent zoom details and reading lists.