We Would Not Be Here: Reproduction, Scholarship, and the Rise of Techno-authoritarianism

In this essay, I seek to braid together several ideas related to democracy, academic methodologies, and information technologies, all of which are being used as capital by tech billionaires, and, in partnership with institutions and government, being wielded as means of control. Currently, our reproductive rights are being stripped from us, threatening our very participation in scholarly life, and our students are terrified of authoritarianism at their doorstep. Scholarship has repeatedly shown that technologies are political, and in our current moment of inequality and rising authoritarianism, we should be wary of any promises of technological liberation. The academy, both in its research and teaching, is a pillar of democracy, and it is being threatened on many fronts. Rather than seeking technological solutions, I argue that our research should democratize the production of ideas by bringing in more voices to do the research and telling real human stories that haven’t yet been told.