Friday 16 June 18:00 - 21:00

King's Building - King's College London
Strand
London
WC2R 2LS

Tickets Unavailable
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Technology and the Body - Book Launch 'The Digital Health Self'

Science & Technology

Book launch of โ€˜The Digital Health Self: Wellness, Tracking and Social Mediaโ€™ (Bristol University Press) by Dr. Rachael Kent

Hosted by The Digital Futures Institute's Centre for Technology and the Body, Bristol University Press, and the Department of Digital Humanities at Kingโ€™s College London, this interactive event celebrates the book launch of โ€˜The Digital Health Self: Wellness, Tracking and Social Mediaโ€™ by Dr. Rachael Kent, and showcases new research which explores how digital technology shapes bodies and health today.

The event will host a Q&A on the book with Dr. Rachael Kent, Lecturer in Digital Economy & Society, followed by a fireside conversation with Professor of Modern History Fay Bound Alberti, and Senior Lecturer in Digital Culture Dr. Zeena Feldman from Kingโ€™s College London. The discussion and Q&A will be followed by an interactive drinks reception with a buffet. Attendees will also receive a 50% discount flyer for the book.

Technology has always shaped how bodies and health are known and understood. In recent years, the rise of digital tech to influence bodies, through the growth of health tech and AI, influencer cultures on TikTok and Instagram, surveillance tools and health profiling from our digital habits, and daily life being increasingly mediated from behind the screen, has accelerated the opportunities and harms of digital tech shaping our health in everyday life.

โ€˜The Digital Health Selfโ€™ explores many of these impacts. This event, through the different disciplinary approaches of the speakers, seeks to examine these critical questions and looks to ask, what does this mean for the future of the relationship between tech, our bodies and health?

Location: Friday 16 June 2023, 6 pm-9 pm, Strand Campus, Kingโ€™s College London.

6pm: Fireside Chat with Q&A, John Nash Lecture Theatre, Strand Campus, KCL

7-9 pm: Drinks Reception & Buffet (Interactive), Somerset Room, Strand Campus, KCL

MORE ABOUT THE BOOK

The Digital Health Self: Wellness, Tracking & Social Media, Bristol University Press

This is a detailed analysis of how understanding of health management past, present, and future has transformed in the digital age. Since the mid-20th century, we have witnessed โ€˜healthyโ€™ lifestyles being pushed as part of health promotion strategies, both via the state, and through health tracking tools, and narratives of wellness online. This marks a seismic shift from a public welfare state responsibility for health towards individualized practices of digital self-care. Today health has become representative of โ€˜lifestyle correction' which is performed on social media.

Putting the spotlight on neoliberalism and digital technology as pervasive tools that dictate wellness as a moral obligation, Rachael Kent critically analyses how users navigate relationships between self-tracking technologies, social media, and everyday health management.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

F๏ปฟay Bound Alberti

Professor Fay Bound Alberti is a writer and historian, specializing in medicine, emotion, gender, and the body. Her books include A Biography of Loneliness: The History of an Emotion and This Mortal Coil: The Human Body in History and Culture. Fay is a Professor of History at Kingโ€™s College London, where she leads the Interface project into the history and meanings of the human face - from cosmetic surgery to face transplants, deep fakes, and Instagram. Fay is currently writing a book about the human face for Allen Lane. She is also Director of The Digital Futures Institute's Centre for Technology and the Body. For more information see: www.fayboundalberti.com

Zeena Feldman

Dr. Zeena Feldman is Senior Lecturer in Digital Culture in the Department of Digital Humanities, Kingโ€™s College London. Her research examines how digital technologies impact understandings and performances of traditionally analogue concepts โ€“ for instance, belonging, identity and mental health. She has published widely, including anthologies with Routledge and IB Tauris/Bloomsbury and in Information, Communication & Society; the European Journal of Cultural Studies; Feminist Media Studies; Celebrity Studies; TripleC; Cultural Policy, Criticism & Management Research; The Independent, OpenDemocracy, and The Conversation. Zeena currently runs the Quitting Social Media project, which explores digital detox and digital overload.

Rachael Kent

Dr. Rachael Kent is a researcher, author, consultant, and Lecturer in Digital Economy and Society, in the Department of Digital Humanities at Kingโ€™s College London, where her research examines the impact of digital technology on mental and physical health.

Rachael is the founder of tech-wellbeing consultancy Dr. Digital Health, providing business strategy and employees with evidence-based research on the impact of digital technology on mental and physical health for managing healthier relationships with tech saturation and overload in everyday personal and professional life. Some of Dr. Kentโ€™s clients include the NHS, Paramount, and CBS.

Dr. Rachael Kent v. Apple: Dr. Kent is the first certified female class representative in UK legal history, leading a collective action against Apple on behalf of 19.6 million UK consumers, alleging they have breached competition law and overcharged for app purchases, seeking ยฃ1.5bn in compensation. See Competiton Appeals Tribunal | Press & Interviews Here

Rachael's research regularly appears in press and podcasts including BBC News, Forbes Magazine, Runners World, Metro UK, Heat Magazine, Women and Home Magazine, The Daily Mail, The Independent, MixMag, and Glamour Magazine.

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