2026 Stapleford Lecture with Dr. Mél Hogan
The Faculty of Arts invites you to attend the 2026 Stapleford Lecture, Data Refineries: How data centres make the politics of AI visible, with guest lecturer Dr. Mél Hogan, Film and Media Professor at Queen's University.
This is a talk about the growing resistance to AI data centre proposals in Canada: how data centers became such a hot topic and what it means to push back against them. Canadians are largely opposed to data centres being built (anywhere, but especially in their communities), while politicians across the political spectrum are selling the public on AI’s inevitability – and local data centres as a way to ensure ‘data sovereignty’ in times of more obvious and overt big tech fascism. This talk puts forward an idea of resistance through conceiving of AI data centers as ‘data refineries’ to more fully understand them as the processing plants they are, converting our (personal, collective) data into products of value for big tech companies.
The event will take place on Wednesday, November 18, 2026 at 7:00 PM in the Education Auditorium at the University of Regina.
Please register online to confirm your attendance. For more information, contact: community.engagement@uregina.ca
Free Admission | Free Parking | All Are Welcome
This is a talk about the growing resistance to AI data centre proposals in Canada: how data centers became such a hot topic and what it means to push back against them. Canadians are largely opposed to data centres being built (anywhere, but especially in their communities), while politicians across the political spectrum are selling the public on AI’s inevitability – and local data centres as a way to ensure ‘data sovereignty’ in times of more obvious and overt big tech fascism. This talk puts forward an idea of resistance through conceiving of AI data centers as ‘data refineries’ to more fully understand them as the processing plants they are, converting our (personal, collective) data into products of value for big tech companies.
The event will take place on Wednesday, November 18, 2026 at 7:00 PM in the Education Auditorium at the University of Regina.
Please register online to confirm your attendance. For more information, contact: community.engagement@uregina.ca
Free Admission | Free Parking | All Are Welcome