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Sussex Digital Humanities Lab Keynote 2025: Joycelyn Longdon 'Rooted Innovation'

What does the future of technology look like amidst ecological and cultural breakdown?

How might we come to see technology as a generational practice of craft, learning from those who have come before us, and those whose technologies are grounded in reciprocal relationships with the environment, in order to build the worlds of the future?

In this talk, Joycelyn Longdon will present the concept of 'Rooted Innovation' from her debut book Natural Connection. She will explore how we might reimagine and redefine technology, beyond a tool for extraction and domination, but as a generational practice of craft.

As a process of learning from those who have come before us and those whose technologies are grounded in reciprocal relationships with the environment, to transform the way we build the technologies of the future for the benefit of the planet AND people.

About Joycelyn Longdon

Joycelyn Longdon is an award-winning environmental justice researcher and educator. Her PhD research at the University of Cambridge centres on the design of justice-led conservation technologies for monitoring biodiversity with local forest communities in Ghana. Her work makes more accessible topics of climate justice, climate colonialism, activism, creativity and systems change across a variety of forums on and offline and for platforms including Meta, The United Nations Geneva Dialogues, Channel 4, Cheltenham Science Festival, Oxford University, The National Lottery, The Design Council and Wellcome Collection.

About Sussex Digital Humanities Lab (SHL Digital)

SHL Digital is an interdisciplinary Centre of Excellence at the University of Sussex that investigates the interactions between computational technology, culture, society and environment. We believe that collaborative research across and beyond academic disciplines is necessary to change research cultures, environments, and praxis, in order to make a real impact on real lives. Find out more.

Sussex Digital Humanities Lab invites you to join them for thought-provoking talk and drinks to celebrate their 10th anniversary.

Stay on after the keynote and celebrate with us. Hosted by Sussex Digital Humanities Lab, Sussex AI, and Sussex Sustainability Research Programme (SSRP) join us to raise a glass to celebrate SHL Digital's 10th anniversary and three years of successful research collaboration to build positive futures at the intersections of human flourishing, environmental sustainability and digital innovation.