Workshop | 14 Nov | Karens, Tradwives and MechaHitlers: Internet Archetypes

Download the full programme here  | Zoom Link in the Programme

The one-day hybrid workshop is hosted at the Department for Interdisciplinary and Multiscalar Area Studies (DIMAS) at the University of Regensburg by Astrid Ensslin and Laura Niebling. Generously funded by the Leibniz ScienceCampus Regensburg, it will bring together perspectives from various transatlantic, European and North American academic communities, among them the US, Canada and Norway, on the topic of Internet archetypes and post-digital storytelling. Using a case study approach, we will critically engage with the idea of the Web as a new “collective unconscious” , and revisit and question Jung’s and other, emergent archetype schemata in light of how they might reflect elements of contemporary post-digital imaginaries and transcultural flows within the imagined “Global North” .

In the keynote talk at 15:45, Frances Corry (Pittsburgh) will discuss Death, failure, closure, sunset: How we understand platform ends. investigates the metaphors brought to understand platform ends specifically and platform temporality broadly, from the naturalizing metaphor of the lifecycle to the innovation-informed discourses accompanying a “productive” failure. Platform end metaphors are surfaced from two empirical sites: from interviews with employees who have worked to shut down social media platforms, and from journalistic accounts that report on platform closure.

The preceding panels will feature contributions from colleagues from Regensburg and around the world, including future ScienceCampus research fellow Marta Vicente (Kansas), who will join us in summer 2026.