Technocreep and the Politics of Things Not Seen
Technocreep and the Politics of Things Not Seen
Please join us for a celebration in the Harriet Tubman Department of WGSS for the releaser of the new book Technocreep and the Politics of Things Not Seen, a unique feminist study of the contemporary technology co-edited by WGSS Chair Neda Atanasoski and University of Washington Professor Nassim Parvin.
This unique book includes six original essays by Atanasoski and Parvin alongside 11 essays by academic contributors and five original artworks. The book grapples with why we so often understand human-technological relationships as “creepy” and considers how feminists can respond in new ways. Drs Atanasoski and Parvin will share their vision of the book at the event and will be joined in conversation with Professors Erin McElroy (Geography, University of Washington), Sheena Erete (UMD INFO), and Alexis Lothian (UMD WGSS). We will also provide cake!
Speakers
Neda Atanasoski is Professor and Chair of the Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park and Associate Director of Education for the Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland (AIM). Atanasoski’s interdisciplinary research has focused on feminism and AI, feminist and critical race approaches to science and technology studies, AI and the future of work, militarism, and human rights and humanitarianism. She is the author of Humanitarian Violence: The U.S. Deployment of Diversity (2013), co-author of Surrogate Humanity: Race, Robots, and the Politics of Technological Futures (2019), and co-editor of Postsocialist Politics and the Ends of Revolution (2022) and Technocreep and the Politics of Things Not Seen (2025). She serves on the editorial collective of the journal Critical Ethnic Studies, the flagship journal of the Critical Ethnic Studies Association. Atanasoski has been the recipient of numerous grants, including the Mellon Affirming Multivocal Humanities Grant, the University of California Multicampus Program Initiative Grant, the Luce Foundation Humanities Studio Grant, the University of California Humanities Research Institute Working Group Grant, and the Center for New Racial Studies Research Grant. Atanasoski has also held a number of fellowships and visiting professorships, including the Mercator Visiting Professorship of AI in the Human Context at the Center for Science and Thought at the University of Bonn, the GEXcel International Collegium for Advanced Transdisciplinary Gender Studies Visiting Research Fellowship in Sweden, the UC Humanities Research Institute Residential Fellowship at UC Irvine, the Hellman Foundation Fellowship, and the UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship at UC Berkeley. Previously, Atanasoski was Professor of Feminist Studies and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies and the founding co-Director of the Center for Racial Justice at The University of California at Santa Cruz.
Nassim Parvin is a Professor at the University of Washington (UW) Information School where she also serves as the Associate Dean for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access & Sovereignty (IDEAS). Dr. Parvin’s interdisciplinary research integrates theoretically-driven humanistic scholarship and design-based inquiry. Her papers have appeared in design, HCI, and STS venues. Her designs have been deployed at nonprofit organizations and exhibited in venues such as the Smithsonian Museum. She is the co-author and co-editor of the book Technocreep and the Politics of Things Not Seen (2025). She is an award-winning educator and served as one of the lead coeditors of Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience from 2018-2023.
Erin McElroy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Washington and is cofounder of the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project and Landlord Tech Watch. McElroy is author of Silicon Valley Imperialism: Techno Fantasies and Frictions in Postsocialist Times and coeditor of Counterpoints: A San Francisco Bay Area Atlas of Displacement and Resistance.
Alexis Lothian is an Associate Professor in the Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Maryland. She is an interdisciplinary scholar of queer and feminist media and cultural studies. Her research centers on speculative fiction, digital media, and online fandom and their relationships to gender, race, and disability justice.
Lothian's first book, Old Futures: Speculative Fiction and Queer Possibility, (2018, NYU Press) explores alternative futures dreamed up by feminists, queers, and people of color in 20th- and 21st-century Britain and America––from feminist utopians to video remixers––in order to inquire into historical and political narratives that the seemingly transparent terminology of “the future” has obscured. As part of this work, she creates video remixes of her own, including “This is a Low: Old Futures in the Age of Brexit,” published in Alienocene: Journal of the First Outernational in 2019. She is currently working on two book projects: a co-authored book on slash fan fiction and the politics of fantasy with Kristina Busse, and a monograph on the formation of critical and social justice-oriented fan cultures in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Lothian co-edits the NYU Press book series Queer/Trans/Digital/Diaspora with Amanda Phillips and Jessica Marie Johnson. She was a founding member of the #transformDH collective and the editorial team for Transformative Works and Cultures, and has served on and chaired the Motherboard of the Otherwise Award, which recognizes speculative fiction that explores and expands understandings of gender.
Sheena Erete is a researcher, educator, designer, and community advocate, whose research focuses on co-designing socio-cultural technologies, practices, and policies with community residents to amplify their local efforts. Her work has addressed topics such as community safety, education, civic engagement, and health. She publishes in top academic and practitioner venues and her work has been supported by the National Science Foundation and numerous other state and philanthropic organizations. Dr. Erete is an associate professor in the College of Information at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Associate Director of Research for the Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland (AIM), and the founding director of the Community Research, Equity, and Design (CREED) Collective.
Please join us for a celebration in the Harriet Tubman Department of WGSS for the releaser of the new book Technocreep and the Politics of Things Not Seen, a unique feminist study of the contemporary technology co-edited by WGSS Chair Neda Atanasoski and University of Washington Professor Nassim Parvin.
This unique book includes six original essays by Atanasoski and Parvin alongside 11 essays by academic contributors and five original artworks. The book grapples with why we so often understand human-technological relationships as “creepy” and considers how feminists can respond in new ways. Drs Atanasoski and Parvin will share their vision of the book at the event and will be joined in conversation with Professors Erin McElroy (Geography, University of Washington), Sheena Erete (UMD INFO), and Alexis Lothian (UMD WGSS). We will also provide cake!
Speakers
Neda Atanasoski is Professor and Chair of the Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park and Associate Director of Education for the Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland (AIM). Atanasoski’s interdisciplinary research has focused on feminism and AI, feminist and critical race approaches to science and technology studies, AI and the future of work, militarism, and human rights and humanitarianism. She is the author of Humanitarian Violence: The U.S. Deployment of Diversity (2013), co-author of Surrogate Humanity: Race, Robots, and the Politics of Technological Futures (2019), and co-editor of Postsocialist Politics and the Ends of Revolution (2022) and Technocreep and the Politics of Things Not Seen (2025). She serves on the editorial collective of the journal Critical Ethnic Studies, the flagship journal of the Critical Ethnic Studies Association. Atanasoski has been the recipient of numerous grants, including the Mellon Affirming Multivocal Humanities Grant, the University of California Multicampus Program Initiative Grant, the Luce Foundation Humanities Studio Grant, the University of California Humanities Research Institute Working Group Grant, and the Center for New Racial Studies Research Grant. Atanasoski has also held a number of fellowships and visiting professorships, including the Mercator Visiting Professorship of AI in the Human Context at the Center for Science and Thought at the University of Bonn, the GEXcel International Collegium for Advanced Transdisciplinary Gender Studies Visiting Research Fellowship in Sweden, the UC Humanities Research Institute Residential Fellowship at UC Irvine, the Hellman Foundation Fellowship, and the UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship at UC Berkeley. Previously, Atanasoski was Professor of Feminist Studies and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies and the founding co-Director of the Center for Racial Justice at The University of California at Santa Cruz.
Nassim Parvin is a Professor at the University of Washington (UW) Information School where she also serves as the Associate Dean for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access & Sovereignty (IDEAS). Dr. Parvin’s interdisciplinary research integrates theoretically-driven humanistic scholarship and design-based inquiry. Her papers have appeared in design, HCI, and STS venues. Her designs have been deployed at nonprofit organizations and exhibited in venues such as the Smithsonian Museum. She is the co-author and co-editor of the book Technocreep and the Politics of Things Not Seen (2025). She is an award-winning educator and served as one of the lead coeditors of Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience from 2018-2023.
Erin McElroy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Washington and is cofounder of the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project and Landlord Tech Watch. McElroy is author of Silicon Valley Imperialism: Techno Fantasies and Frictions in Postsocialist Times and coeditor of Counterpoints: A San Francisco Bay Area Atlas of Displacement and Resistance.
Alexis Lothian is an Associate Professor in the Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Maryland. She is an interdisciplinary scholar of queer and feminist media and cultural studies. Her research centers on speculative fiction, digital media, and online fandom and their relationships to gender, race, and disability justice.
Lothian's first book, Old Futures: Speculative Fiction and Queer Possibility, (2018, NYU Press) explores alternative futures dreamed up by feminists, queers, and people of color in 20th- and 21st-century Britain and America––from feminist utopians to video remixers––in order to inquire into historical and political narratives that the seemingly transparent terminology of “the future” has obscured. As part of this work, she creates video remixes of her own, including “This is a Low: Old Futures in the Age of Brexit,” published in Alienocene: Journal of the First Outernational in 2019. She is currently working on two book projects: a co-authored book on slash fan fiction and the politics of fantasy with Kristina Busse, and a monograph on the formation of critical and social justice-oriented fan cultures in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Lothian co-edits the NYU Press book series Queer/Trans/Digital/Diaspora with Amanda Phillips and Jessica Marie Johnson. She was a founding member of the #transformDH collective and the editorial team for Transformative Works and Cultures, and has served on and chaired the Motherboard of the Otherwise Award, which recognizes speculative fiction that explores and expands understandings of gender.
Sheena Erete is a researcher, educator, designer, and community advocate, whose research focuses on co-designing socio-cultural technologies, practices, and policies with community residents to amplify their local efforts. Her work has addressed topics such as community safety, education, civic engagement, and health. She publishes in top academic and practitioner venues and her work has been supported by the National Science Foundation and numerous other state and philanthropic organizations. Dr. Erete is an associate professor in the College of Information at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Associate Director of Research for the Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland (AIM), and the founding director of the Community Research, Equity, and Design (CREED) Collective.
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