ANU School of Sociology Seminar Series: Prof James Smithies

Please join us for the next seminar in the ANU Sociology Seminar Series, "The Paradoxes of Digital Modernity" by Prof James Smithies (ANU HASS Digital Research Hub)

• Date: Monday 12 October, 2026

• Time: 12 – 1pm (AEST)

• Location: RSSS Room 4.69, and Zoom (register to receive Zoom link)

The Paradoxes of Digital Modernity

We have grown accustomed to thinking about industrial and post-industrial modernity but have yet to explore the many paradoxes of digital modernity. This talk claims that grappling with the idée force of modernity is essential in the digital age, to protect social democracy from hyper-capitalism and unregulated technological acceleration. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is only the latest in a long string of infrastructural and ideological developments that have become entangled with reactionary trends in geo-politics and civil society. This is connected to the rejection of the critical theory of modernity by intellectuals after the turn of the millennium. Post-enlightenment experience has demonstrated the horror of Western imperialism and genocide and in doing so eroded traditions of social democracy and human rights we depend upon in our everyday lives. The paradoxes of digital modernity are profound: we need to reach back to the past to regain purchase over our future; we need to embrace technological development while rejecting technological determinism; we need to control artificial intelligence while rejecting its mythologising discourse. Based on Digital Modernity: Why We Need to Think Historically About the Digital Age (2026), the talk will explore the problem of digital modernity and suggest ways we can maximise its critical potential and defend our political traditions.

About the speaker

James Smithies is Professor of Digital Humanities & Director of the HASS Digital Research Hub (HRDH) at The Australian University. Before ANU he was Professor of Digital Humanities in the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College London and founding director of King's Digital Lab. Prior to working at King's James worked as a senior lecturer at the University of Canterbury Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha in Aotearoa New Zealand, helping develop the UC CEISMIC Canterbury Earthquakes Digital Archive