JCU Launches Interuniversity Research Center on Transnational Technocultures (CRiTT)
John Cabot University, in collaboration with the University of Naples “L’Orientale,” Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, and Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence, is pleased to announce the establishment of CRiTT (Centro di Ricerca Interuniversitario sulle Tecnoculture Transnazionali), an Interuniversity Research Center on Transnational Technocultures. The structure of the Center is composed of four nodes: John Cabot University, L’Orientale University in Naples, Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence, and Ca’ Foscari University in Venice as founding institutions. JCU Communications and Media Studies Professors Donatella Della Ratta and Peter Sarram are JCU’s representatives on CRiTT’s Executive Committee.
The Center aims to foster collaboration and crosspollination in terms of knowledge production in the area of critical media studies by organizing events that explore technologies and technocultures with a critical perspective. “The field of critical media studies is unfortunately lacking in Italy as an autonomous field of study. Here, media studies are under the umbrella of the sociology of communications, but our take is different, and it’s closer to critical media studies,” explained Professor Della Ratta. Critical media studies explore how to analyze and think critically about the power of the media and how its influence shapes race, gender, sexuality, socioeconomic status, citizenship, and other social differences.
The idea to establish a center to connect scholars who share a critical perspective in media and internet studies was born following a collaboration with Tiziana Terranova, scholar and professor at the University of Naples “L’Orientale” and former professor at Goldsmiths University in London. What started in 2019 as a reading group where members discussed technology in a critical way, slowly grew to include younger scholars, Ph.D. students, postdoctoral fellows, as well as advanced undergraduate students. “We thought that it would be a good idea to team up and establish a place that could become a good point of reference for critical media studies in Italy,” explained Professor Della Ratta.
The JCU Department of Communication and Media Studies’ Digital Delights and Disturbances lecture series is now part of CRiTT’s events, and this season has been dubbed “Decolonize! Digital Delights and Disturbances.” Nero magazine, with whom JCU has recently established a collaboration, is also media partner of the series. “This edition of DDD has a strong decolonial/anticolonial emphasis. We felt that the discourse on tech is very white and male dominated, and does not reflect the multicultural world we live in. So, we decided to invite scholars, artists, and practitioners who would broaden the discussion over tech, adding on to new perspectives,” Professor Della Ratta explained.
“It’s important to include scholars and practitioners from a non-western context in shaping the discourse around technology, so they can enrich the discussion at a cultural level. Especially now that there are lots of debates about biases when it comes to race and gender in the data sets that feed AI. This is why this year we decided to do the Digital Delights and Disturbances lecture series on decolonizing tech. We are planning to use the next edition to challenge and interrogate concepts and practices of gender,” she added.
In the future, Professor Della Ratta sees the Digital Delights and Disturbances lecture series heading in two directions. “First of all, broadening the discussion on tech by including all silenced voices and perspectives, so as to have a broader and more diverse focus on technology. And secondly, which is something that we have already started doing, is to invite not only scholars, but also practitioners, artists, designers, and younger people. And obviously to continue to provide a forum for our students to critically engage with media studies.”
