ICS Seminar Series

UPCOMING

Testing-in-the-wild: innovation nationalism and the colonial dynamics of new technology testbeds

Presenter: Thao Phan

Discussant: Ned Rossiter

Chair: Charles Barbour

Date & Time: 16 April 2026 | 11:30am - 1:00pm

Room: PS-EA.1.27 Parramatta South Campus

Abstract

This presentation analyses the phenomenon of the AI testbed and practices of “testingin-the-wild. ” It combines historical and sociological approaches to understand how places like Australia have come to be treated as ideal test sites for new AI systems, using commercial drone delivery company Wing Aviation as a case study. It connects the figuration of Australia as contemporary testbed with histories of the nation as a colonial experiment. I argue that this historical frame has been consistently deployed to justify the treatment of lands and peoples as experimental subjects across a range of domains: techniques of penal management in the nineteenth century, military weapons in the early twentieth century, AI-driven systems like drone delivery in the twenty-first century. By connecting this history to the present moment, I show how Australia has been variously treated as a test site and Australians as test subjects based on changing imaginaries of the nation and its people, from proxies for whiteness and Empire in the colonial period, to multiculturalism and ethnic diversity in the contemporary era.

Biography

Thao Phan is a feminist science and technology studies (STS) researcher who specialises in the study of gender and race in algorithmic culture. She is a DECRA Fellow and Lecturer in Sociology (STS) at the Australian National University (ANU). Her research examines the role of AI systems in constituting categories such as gender, race, class, and nation. She is the current President of AusSTS—Australia’s largest network of STS scholars.

To join our email list and receive updates on upcoming seminars, guest speakers, and institute news, please email Sally at s.byrnes@westernsydney.edu.au

Semester 1 Program

Download 2026 Semester 1 Program (PDF) (opens in a new window)

Past ICS Seminars

ICS Seminar 2025 Semester 2 Program (PDF) (opens in a new window) [[link]]

ICS Seminar 2024 Semester 1 Program (PDF) (Opens in a new window) [[link]]

ICS Seminar 2024 Semester 2 Program (PDF) (Opens in a new window) [[link]]

Access all our previous ICS Seminars.