Short Abstract

This meet-up gathers contributors and readers of Imagining the Internet(s): A Collaborative Glossary to reflect on collective writing, editing, and publishing. The session explores how experimental glossaries can shape interdisciplinary research, teaching, and theorising internet histories.

Description

This meet-up invites contributors and readers of Imagining the Internet(s): A Collaborative Glossary—an experimental publication by Matter of Imagination (matterofimagination.neocities.org) produced with the Institute of Network Cultures (Amsterdam) and supported by the EASST Fund—to come together and reflect on the process and outcomes of this collective endeavour.

The glossary, to be published in summer 2026, is an open-access zine gathering 28 keywords that provide a means to critically describe and conceptualise how the internet has been imagined, narrated, and theorised across time and place. It brings together contributions from scholars and independent researchers in Media Studies and STS, offering a transnational vocabulary for thinking about how the internet histories are shaped by imaginaries besides the infrastructures. Instead of encyclopaedic entries, the texts are experimental in form, allowing authors to write from personal experience with a concept, highlighting both its contingencies and its continued usefulness.

The open call for contributions travelled widely through international academic networks and received over a hundred submissions. Although the project’s scope allowed only a selection, this meet-up aims to reconnect with the wider community that engaged with the initiative, offering an open space bringing together those who contributed, submitted, or simply followed the project with interest.

During the meet-up, we will exchange experiences of writing and editing, whilst reflecting on the prospects of teaching with the glossary and how collective editorial projects can serve as a method for interdisciplinary and experimental research. What does it mean to write theory collaboratively? How can glossaries, zines, and other hybrid forms function as spaces of academic exchange and critique?

The session is open to all interested in media history, STS, and collaborative or experimental publishing. Short reflections by the editors will introduce the project, followed by open discussion and informal networking.