Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies
Finland
fellow
Amanda Lagerkvist
Home institution
Uppsala University
Country of origin (home institution)
Sweden
Discipline(s)
Information and communication sciences
Theme(s)
Digital Society
Identity
Information & media
Fellowship dates
›
Biography
Amanda Lagerkvist is Professor of media and communication studies, PI of the Uppsala Hub for Digital Existence and researcher at the Centre for Multidisciplinary Research on Religion and Society at Uppsala University. She is a founder of the field of existential media studies. Her current work spans intersections of biometric data, disability and selfhood; and the ambivalent AI imaginary and its relationship to both futures and endings. In her monograph, Existential Media: A Media Theory of the Limit Situation (OUP, 2022) she introduces Karl Jaspers’ existential philosophy of limit situations for media theory. She is currently under contract for her new book Dismedia: Technologies of the Extraordinary Self with The University of Michigan Press.
Research Project
Dismedia: Technologies of the Extraordinary Self
Amanda Lagerkvist’s project combines existential media analysis and disability theory to challenge the powerful messianic hypes and norms for being human, forged within socio-technical imaginaries of today. Through pertinent case studies of biometrics, assistive AI, chatbots and video sharing platforms, it places the “extraordinary self” at the heart of the analysis. Rethinking the entanglements of disability, technology, and selfhood, it offers a broadly relevant and much needed critical analysis for our times of interrelated crises.
Research Interests:
Media philosophy/existential media studies; death online; digital memories; lifeworlds of automation and biometrics; apocalyptic AI imaginaries; intersections of disability; technology and selfhood