Dr Luke Munn
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Centre for Digital Cultures & Societies
Affiliate Researcher
ADM+S Centre
ADM+S Centre biography
Read more about Luke Munn in the ADM+S Centre.
Researcher biography
My work explores the digital cultures that increasingly shape our lives, combining a deep understanding of technical logics (code, infrastructures, architectures) with a critical awareness of race and class, gender and labor, epistemologies and ecologies. This interweaving “offers new and critical insight” (Prof Starosielski, NYU) and makes me an “original voice” (Prof Pasquale, Cornell), leading to my current role as an ARC Future Fellow. I have developed an international profile through six monographs with leading presses such as Automation is a Myth (Stanford), Technical Territories (Michigan) and Red Pilled (Transcript) as well as 45 articles as lead or solo author, with 25 in high ranked (Q1 or Q2) journals. My work has shaped current debates, being cited by The Guardian, the Washington Post, and appearing in Scientific American. My teaching has been praised by scholars and students and draws directly on my cutting-edge research to diagnose contemporary conditions. I actively mentor the next generation of scholars through regular workshops, seminars, and collaboration on real-world projects.
Publications
Books
Munn, Luke (2023). Technical territories: data, subjects, and spaces in infrastructural Asia. Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA: University of Michigan Press. doi: 10.3998/mpub.12584902
Munn, Luke (2023). Red pilled - The allure of digital hate. Bielefeld, Germany: Bielefeld University Press. doi: 10.14361/9783839466735
Munn, Luke (2023). Countering the cloud: thinking with and against data infrastructures. New York, NY United States: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003341185
Munn, Luke (2022). Automation is a myth. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Munn, Luke (2020). Logic of feeling: technology's quest to capitalize emotion. London, United Kingdom: Rowman and Littlefield.
Munn, Luke (2018). Ferocious logics: unmaking the algorithm. Luneburg, Germany: Meson Press.
Book Chapters
Munn, Luke (2023). Digital labor, platforms, and AI. Introduction to digital humanism. (pp. 557-569) edited by Hannes Werthner, Carlo Ghezzi, Jeff Kramer, Julian Nida-Rümelin, Bashar Nuseibeh, Erich Prem and Allison Stanger. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-45304-5_35
Munn, Luke (2022). Automation is a myth. Materializing digital futures: touch, movement, sound and vision. (pp. 289-303) edited by Toija Cinque and Jordan Beth Vincent. New York, NY, United States: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Munn, Luke (2020). Chip, body, earth: toxic temporalities of Intel processor production. The temporalities of waste: out of sight, out of time. (pp. 47-58) edited by Fiona Allon, Ruth Barcan and Karma Eddison-Cogan. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Taylor and Francis. doi: 10.4324/9780429317170-5
Journal Articles
Munn, Luke and Badri, Adarsh (2025). Culture machine: How MetaCLIP codifies culture. New Media and Society. doi: 10.1177/14614448251336429
Munn, Luke, Magee, Liam and Arora, Vanicka (2024). Truth machines: synthesizing veracity in AI language models. AI and Society, 39 (6) e11510, 2759-2773. doi: 10.1007/s00146-023-01756-4
Marsden, Linda, Munn, Luke, Magee, Liam, Ferrinda, Matthew, St. Pierre, Justin and Third, Amanda (2024). Inclusive online learning in Australia: Barriers and enablers. Education and Information Technologies, 30 (4), 5301-5330. doi: 10.1007/s10639-024-13012-3
Nguyen-Thu, Giang and Munn, Luke (2024). Taming the algorithm: the platform realism of GrabBike delivery workers. New Media and Society. doi: 10.1177/14614448241262417
Munn, Luke (2024). Expansive and Invasive: mapping the “Bossware” Used to Monitor Workers. Surveillance and Society, 22 (2), 104-119. doi: 10.24908/ss.v22i2.16179
Munn, Luke (2024). Misinformation’s missing human. Media, Culture and Society, 46 (6), 1287-1298. doi: 10.1177/01634437241249164
Munn, Luke and Henrickson, Leah (2024). Tell me a story: a framework for critically investigating AI language models. Learning, Media and Technology, ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print), 1-17. doi: 10.1080/17439884.2024.2327024
Munn, Luke (2024). Book review: Who Wrote This?: How AI and the Lure of Efficiency Threaten Human Writing by Naomi Baron. Sub-Stance, 53 (3), 156-161. doi: 10.1353/sub.2024.a944513
Arora, Vanicka, Magee, Liam and Munn, Luke (2024). (Re)framing built heritage through the machinic gaze. Journal of Social Archaeology, 24 (2), 197-217. doi: 10.1177/14696053241237949
Munn, Luke (2024). More Than Monitoring: Grappling With Bossware. International Journal of Communication, 18, 3128-3139.
Fleming, Catharine A. K., Sharma, Deepika, Brunacci, Kaitlyn, Chandra, Shiva, Lala, Girish, Munn, Luke and Third, Amanda (2023). Fix my food: an urgent call to action from adolescents on how they experience and want to see change in their food systems. Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, 36 (6), 2295-2309. doi: 10.1111/jhn.13228
Munn, Luke (2023). Toxic play: examining the issue of hate within gaming. First Monday, 28 (9). doi: 10.5210/fm.v28i9.12508
Magee, Liam, Arora, Vanicka and Munn, Luke (2023). Structured like a language model: Analysing AI as an automated subject. Big Data and Society, 10 (2) 20539517231210273. doi: 10.1177/20539517231210273
Munn, Luke (2023). Tika technology an alternative blueprint for digitalisation. Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation, 17 (1), 153-168. doi: 10.13169/workorgalaboglob.17.1.0153
Munn, Luke (2023). The five tests: designing and evaluating AI according to indigenous Māori principles. AI & SOCIETY, 39 (4), 1673-1681. doi: 10.1007/s00146-023-01636-x
Munn, Luke (2023). Red territory: forging infrastructural power. Territory, Politics, Governance, 11 (1), 80-99. doi: 10.1080/21622671.2020.1805353
Munn, Luke (2023). The end of prediction? AI technologies in a no-Analog world. Sub-Stance, 52 (2), 59-73. doi: 10.1353/sub.2023.a907149
Munn, Luke (2023). Surface and Sublevel Hate. Big Data & Society, 10 (1), 205395172211481. doi: 10.1177/20539517221148136
Munn, Luke (2022). Have faith and question everything: understanding QAnon's allure. Platform: Journal of Media and Communication, 9 (1), 80-97. doi: 10.46580/p67734
Munn, Luke (2022). The uselessness of AI ethics. AI and Ethics, 3 (3), 869-877. doi: 10.1007/s43681-022-00209-w
Munn, Luke (2022). Thinking through silicon: cables and servers as epistemic infrastructures. New Media and Society, 24 (6), 1399-1416. doi: 10.1177/1461444820977197
Munn, Luke (2022). Dying on Airbnb: digital infrastructures and deadly spaces. The Information Society, 38 (3), 218-225. doi: 10.1080/01972243.2022.2071217
Munn, Luke (2022). Sustainable hate: how Gab built a durable "platform for the people". Canadian Journal of Communication, 47 (1), 219-240. doi: 10.22230/cjc.2022v47n1a4037
Munn, Luke (2022). Twinned power: formations of cloud-edge control. Information Communication and Society, 25 (7), 975-991. doi: 10.1080/1369118X.2020.1808043
Munn, Luke (2021). Data and the new oil: Cloud computing’s lubrication of the petrotechnical. Journal of Environmental Media, 2 (2), 211-227. doi: 10.1386/jem_00063_1
Munn, Luke (2021). Sand, silica, silicon: Singapore's triple territories. Verge: Studies in Global Asias, 7 (1), 220-246. doi: 10.5749/vergstudglobasia.7.1.0220
Munn, Luke (2021). More than a mob: Parler as preparatory media for the Capitol storming. First Monday, 26 (3). doi: 10.5210/fm.v26i3.11574
Munn, Luke (2020). Angry by design: toxic communication and technical architectures. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 7 (1) 53, 1-11. doi: 10.1057/s41599-020-00550-7
Munn, Luke (2020). Staying at the edge of privacy: edge computing and impersonal extraction. Media and Communication, 8 (2), 270-279. doi: 10.17645/mac.v8i2.2761
Munn, Luke (2020). Injecting failure: data center infrastructures and the imaginaries of resilience. Information Society, 36 (3), 167-176. doi: 10.1080/01972243.2020.1737607
Munn, Luke (2020). Porous Territories the Internet beyond Borderless versus Balkanized. Glocalism (1). doi: 10.12893/gjcpi.2020.1.3
Munn, Luke (2020). From the black atlantic to black-scholes: precursors of spatial capitalization. Cultural Politics, 16 (1), 92-110. doi: 10.1215/17432197-8017284
Munn, Luke (2020). Machine readable race: constructing racial information in the Third Reich. Open Information Science, 4 (1), 143-155. doi: 10.1515/opis-2020-0011
Munn, Luke (2019). Subordinated to Oneself: The Switchboard Operator as Early Self Manager. Junctions: Graduate Journal of the Humanities, 4 (2), 51-63. doi: 10.33391/jgjh.58
Munn, Luke (2019). Alt-right pipeline: Individual journeys to extremism online. First Monday, 24 (6), 1-19. doi: 10.5210/fm.v24i6.10108
Munn, Luke (2019). Cash burning machine: Uber’s logic of planetary expansion. TripleC, 17 (2), 1-17. doi: 10.31269/triplec.v17i2.1097
Munn, Luke, Hristova, Tsvetelina and Magee, Liam (2019). Clouded data: privacy and the promise of encryption. Big Data and Society, 6 (1), 1-16. doi: 10.1177/2053951719848781
Munn, Luke (2018). Alexa and the intersectional interface. Angles, 7 (7), 1-11. doi: 10.4000/angles.861
Munn, Luke (2018). Rendered inoperable. A Peer-Reviewed Journal About, 7 (1), 14-25. doi: 10.7146/aprja.v7i1.115057
Munn, Luke (2017). I am a Driver-Partner. Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation, 11 (2), 7-20. doi: 10.13169/workorgalaboglob.11.2.0007
Munn, Luke (2017). Seeing with software: Palantir and the regulation of life. Studies in Control Societies, 2 (1), 1-17.
Conference Papers
Nguyen-Thu, Giang and Munn, Luke (2024). Taming the algo: Grab bikers grappling with platform logics from below. 25th Annual Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers, Sheffield, United Kingdom, 30 October-2 November 2024. Champaign, IL, United States: University of Illinois Libraries. doi: 10.5210/spir.v2024i0.14016
Munn, Luke, Khan, Awais Hameed, Hettiachchi, Danula, Sabie, Samar, Ghahremanlou, Lida, Saghir, Saarim, Lambourne, Nicholas and Magee, Liam (2024). Unmaking AI: engaging critically and creatively with generative AI. Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction OzCHI: Beyond being human, Brisbane/Meeanjin, QLD, Australia, 30 November - 4 December 2024.
Munn, Luke (2019). “Alexa, can I trust you?”: Small sisters and friendly power. 20th Annual Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers, Brisbane, QLD Australia, 2-5 October 2019. Urbana, IL United States: University of Illinois Libraries. doi: 10.5210/spir.v2019i0.11012
Seminar Paper
Henman, Paul, Knight, Caroline, Munn, Luke and Rimer, Jonah (2025). AI, ethics, and research. Research Seminar Series. School of Social Science, The University of Queensland.
Creative Work
Munn, Luke and Khan, Awais Hameed (2025). Unmaking AI Design Cards. Carlton, VIC Australia: ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society.
Newspaper Article
Munn, Luke (2024, 05 21). The missing human in misinformation fixes Scientific American