Drone Futures Seminar 4: J.D. Schnepf

Media Futures Hub is a collection of scholars at UNSW researching justice, media and emerging technologies. We explore topics such as community and First Nations media, drones and autonomous systems, data justice, listening across difference, everyday uses of media technology, and new research methods. Our research is interventionist, innovative and fearless. Our aim is not only to analyse the world around us, but to help build more just futures.

Media Futures Hub

A virtual public seminar with J.D. Schnepf (University of Groningen), chaired by Michael Richardson (UNSW).

<h3>Seminar 4: Ecological Crisis and the Rise of Drone Humanitarianism with J.D. Schnepf.</h3>This seminar considers the eco-drone’s emerging status as a humanitarian technology in the context of environmental disaster relief efforts. In recent years, media scholars, news agencies, and consumer tech companies have touted the humanitarian potential of new ecosensing technologies. But these endorsements fail to take into account the discrepancy between the speed of new technological systems and the efficiency of state managed rescue. This difference becomes especially pronounced with the reduction of federal and state assistance in times of environmental disaster. Schnepf traces the contemporary mediation of catastrophic flooding to argue that cultural narratives around the eco-drone as an ostensibly humanitarian, life-giving technology produce the figure of the heroic drone operator while obscuring the drone’s alignment with the objectives of the US security state.J.D. Schnepf is Assistant Professor of American Studies at the University of Groningen. She is completing a book manuscript on the domestic cultures of contemporary U.S. imperialism. In 2019, she was awarded the Emory Elliott Prize for outstanding paper presented at the International American Studies Association World Congress. Her scholarship has appeared in Feminist Media Studies, International Feminist Journal of Politics, Media + Environment, Modern Fiction Studies, Surveillance &amp; Society, and other venues. She holds a Ph.D. in English from Brown University.

<h3>About the Drone Futures series:</h3>Drone Futures brings together leading artists, humanities and social science scholars whose research intersects with the emerging field of drone studies. From the neo-colonial violence of contemporary wars in the Middle East and Africa to the strange histories of unmanned aerial vehicles to activist uses in struggles for justice, this seminar series looks to the past and present to think into the future. By showcasing inter-disciplinary scholarship, it aims to spark new connections and inspire debate about how to build more just drone futures.Taking place from August through to November 2020, the Drone Futures seminars will be streamed live to YouTube, where participants can converse and post questions through the comments function. Please register your interest in attending this virtual event. The Drone Futures Seminar Series will culminate in the <a href="https://www.dronewitnessing.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Drone Cultures Symposium</a>, hosted virtually on the 8-10 of December by the <a href="https://mediafutureshub.org/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">UNSW Media Futures Hub</a>. For a link to a recorded podcast of Drone Futures seminars, as well as information about the other presentations in the seminar series and the upcoming Drone Cultures Symposium, visit the project's website:<a href="https://www.dronewitnessing.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"> www.dronewitnessing.com</a>.The Drone Cultures Symposium is funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Drone Cultures acknowledge and pays respect to the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live, particularly the Bedegal, Bidjigal and Gadigal Peoples, and their elders past and present. Sovereignty was never ceded, and the struggle for justice continues.

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Drone Futures Seminar 4: J.D. Schnepf

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