Ylva Hård af Segerstad's professor's lecture
Ylva Hård af Segerstad, previously associate professor in applied information technology, was recently appointed professor in communication. You are welcome to listen to her professor's lecture arranged at the Department of Applied Information Technology. The lecture will be in Swedish and can simultaneously be followed in English.
Nothing New Under the Sun? On Digitalisation, Life, and Death
Over the past few decades, our daily lives have become increasingly digitalised. For most of us, digital tools, platforms, and services are now so deeply and complexly integrated into almost every aspect of our daily lives. Digital technologies influence and transform everything from communicative patterns and social interaction, views on knowledge and knowledge development, to political and cultural processes—and everything in between.
In this technology-intensive society, it is becoming less and less relevant to differentiate between what happens "online" and what happens "offline." The same digital landscape can also affect and change both how we theoretically understand and practically experience, explore, and negotiate deeply existential aspects of life and death.
My research has evolved during a period of intense development in both technology and society, spanning several fields: from linguistic studies of digital communication technologies, through exploring how children learn to read and write in the information society, to how social media platforms can serve as resources for vulnerable groups and how digital tools change our perceptions of death, mourning, and memory practices. A common thread running through these diverse research focuses is a methodological interest in exploring human engagement with digital technology and what it does to us, coupled with a strong interest in research ethics.
My research grounds technological questions in humanistic and social science perspectives, enabling nuanced understandings of how emerging technologies transform our world and ourselves, and how we can responsibly design and use digital technologies.
With insights from my previous research, I will in this lecture reflect on whether anything is truly new under the sun today and look ahead to new studies where the power of digital and intelligent technology can be harnessed for learning and healing.