Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 39, No. 421.
        Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
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                       www.dhhumanist.org
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    [1]    From: James Smithies <James.Smithies@anu.edu.au>
           Subject: New Book: Digital Modernity: Why We Need to Think Historically About the Digital Age (47)

    [2]    From:  Morgan Currie <morgan.currie@ed.ac.uk>
           Subject: New Series launched: The Politics of Data and AI (31)


--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Date: 2026-04-16 06:51:46+00:00
        From: James Smithies <James.Smithies@anu.edu.au>
        Subject: New Book: Digital Modernity: Why We Need to Think Historically About the Digital Age

I'm pleased to announce the publication of my monograph Digital Modernity: Why
We Need to Think Historically About the Digital Age (Routledge, 2026), available
for purchase and open access download via the links below.

The book offers the first systematic theorization of digital modernity, arguing
that the digital age cannot be understood apart from the long historical arc of
modernity. It bridges digital humanities, critical theory, sociology,
philosophy, and global history to demonstrate that contemporary digital systems
are continuations rather than ruptures of the modern project — and develops a
conceptual framework for examining how technological infrastructures intersect
with democracy, governance, colonial legacies, and the public sphere.

Across nine chapters, the book moves from conceptual foundations to future-
facing proposals, engaging topics including the cultural logic of Silicon
Valley, digital colonialism, digital infrastructure, and the epistemic crisis of
the digital public sphere. It also addresses philosophical questions about
emergence, historicism, and artificial intelligence. Drawing on applied digital
humanities, the book rejects technological determinism while offering accessible
accounts of computing's technical and political histories.

Alan Liu (UC Santa Barbara) describes the book as bringing "astonishingly broad,
detailed, and interlaced knowledge of computation, philosophy, and history" to
bear on digital modernity's core tensions. Katherine Bode (ANU) calls it "an
essential guide for anyone seeking to understand not just what digital
technologies do but how they are deeply entangled in modernity's contested
pasts." Peter Beilharz (La Trobe) characterises it as "pioneering work" bridging
the digital revolution with the tradition of critical theory and sociology.

The open access version is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non
Commercial-No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 International license.

Opportunities to contribute to ongoing development of the critical theory of
digital modernity will be publicised in the coming months.

Open Access: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-
mono/10.4324/9781003684398/digital-modernity-james-smithies

Physical: https://www.routledge.com/Digital-Modernity-Why-We-Need-to-Think-
Historically-About-the-Digital-Age/Smithies/p/book/9781041164012

Kind regards,
James Smithies


Professor & Director, HASS Digital Research Hub

The Australian National University

--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Date: 2026-04-16 09:12:59+00:00
        From:  Morgan Currie <morgan.currie@ed.ac.uk>
        Subject: New Series launched: The Politics of Data and AI

 I’m writing with the exciting news that submissions are now open for
a new series on The Politics of Data and AI with Edinburgh University
Press! The series is edited by Morgan Currie and Hemangini Gupta and is
now soliciting manuscripts and edited volumes of between 80,000-1000,000
words. Selected submissions by early career researchers will receive
additional directed feedback in the form of a book workshop.

  The new series is invested in the politics of data widely construed,
with particular emphasis on environmental and ecological costs, labour
and work, media and cultural representations, governance and policy, and
global struggles featuring data-intensive systems. With a strong focus
on geographic diversity, the series will offer empirically grounded
accounts from around the world, along with critical analyses and
theories that challenge mainstream understandings and that promote
radical, alternative approaches to the governance of data and AI.

  For an informal discussion or to pitch us, see
https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/series-politics-of-data-and-ai for
submission details and editor contact information.

  With best wishes,
  Hemangini and Morgan

--

  Morgan Currie
  Senior Lecturer in Data & Society
  Science, Technology & Innovation Studies
  University of Edinburgh
  w: www.morgancurrie.com [1]



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