Silicon Valley in Context: Technology Corporations as Political Actors
Postgraduate students, fellows, staff and faculty from any discipline are welcome. This group aims to foster frequent interdisciplinary critical dialogue across Oxford and beyond about the political impacts of emerging technologies. Please contact Elisabeth Siegel at elisabeth.siegel@politics.ox.ac.uk or Brian Kot at brian.kot@politics.ox.ac.uk in advance to participate or with any questions. Remote attendance is possible, but in-person attendance is prioritized (and provided refreshment). Discussion topics will be finalized and optional readings will be sent out a week in advance. You do not currently have to be affiliated with the University of Oxford to attend and participate in discussions.

About the speaker: Dr. Alina Utrata is a political theorist focusing on the politics of technology corporations. Her work largely sits at the intersection of political theory and critical technology studies, as well as integrating components of international relations and geography. She has published in the American Political Science Review comparing Silicon Valley’s outer space colonization projects with the histories of other extractive corporations. She received her PhD in Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge in 2024, where she was a Gates-Cambridge Scholar and where she received the departmental Lisa Smirl PhD prize for best PhD completed in 2023-2024. In her free time, she hosts and produces the podcast the Anti-Dystopians, a politics podcast about tech. She received her MA in Conflict Transformation and Social Justice from Queen’s University Belfast in 2018 as a Marshall Scholar and her BA from Stanford University in History with a minor in Human Rights. She teaches topics related to politics, political theory and technology studies. For more about Dr. Alina Utrata, visit her website at www.alinautrata.com
Date: 20 February 2025, 15:00
Venue: Venue to be announced
Speaker: Alina Utrata (University of Oxford)
Organisers: Elisabeth Siegel (University of Oxford), Changing Character of War Centre (CCW)
Organiser contact email address: elisabeth.siegel@politics.ox.ac.uk
Part of: Oxford Technology & Security Nexus
Booking required?: Required
Booking email: elisabeth.siegel@politics.ox.ac.uk
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Elisabeth Siegel