Other new courses to address Christian Nationalism and ‘Decomputing’
AUCKLAND, 16 April 2025 – Community education provider Dark Times Academy has announced some bold new courses for its second term lineup for 2025, with topics covering the threat of Christian Nationalism, ‘decomputing’, and a special course about resisting the Silicon Valley ‘tech bros’ and oligarchs, with an impressive range of well-known guest speakers.
Courses include:
- Fighting the Broligarchy!
With an all-star guest lecturer line-up that includes the smartest critical technology thinkers writing today, this class will take a close look at the ways the Silicon Valley tech companies and their leaders have impacted society and seek to answer the questions of “How did we get here?” and “What do we do now?” Guest speakers over the eight weeks of this course will include Paris Marx (host of the podcast Tech Won’t Save Us), Brian Merchant, Chris Gilliard (Hypervisible), Dr. Dan McQuillan (author of Resisting AI) Dr. Alex Hanna, Sarah Roberts, Aliya Danzeisen, and Jathan Sadowski (podcast host of This Machine Kills). For more information and registrations, visit: Fighting the Broligarchy!
- “This is our nation, not theirs”: The Threat of Christian Nationalism
In this course, Dr Eric Repphun will explore Christian nationalism—what it is, where it came from, and most importantly—how to fight it. With JD Vance in the White House and Paula White leading the White House Faith Office, Christian nationalists are grabbing the reins of power. This class will help you better understand them and their worldview so you can more effectively organise against them. For more information and registrations, visit: “This is our nation, not theirs”: The Threat of Christian Nationalism
- Decomputing: A Community Exploration
Dark Times Academy co-founder Mandy Henk has been doing a deep dive on decomputing and wants to share what she’s learned in this course. She will address the questions: What is decomputing? Is it a good idea? And how would we even begin to build lives that involve less time interacting with the products that have created the tech oligarchs and more time doing the things bring us joy? This class will be a community exploration of these questions—and will culminate in being a “hub” of the Limits 2025: Computing within Limits Conference. For more information and registrations, visit: Decomputing: A Community Exploration
“We’re very excited about this new group of courses,” says Dark Times Academy co-founder Mandy Henk. “As always, these classes are all about action, community building and – most importantly –learning together.”
“With all these new courses, we’re aiming to make learning joyful again – something that, in our view, is much needed in these dark times that we are all living through,” she says.
“People interested in getting involved have two options. First, they can register and join a class themselves. For those who don’t have the time to take a class themselves, sponsoring someone else to take a class also offers a great way to contribute and spread the learning around.”
For more information on Dark Times Academy and to register for courses, visit: https://www.darktimesacademy.co.nz.
<ENDS>
For more information or interview requests, contact:
Brendan Boughen
M: 027 839 6044
E: brendan.boughen@gmail.com
About Dark Times Academy
Dark Times Academy aims to make learning joyful again. Offering fun and rigorous classes that combine small group live Zoom instruction with short, pre-recorded lectures, Dark Times Academy is bringing community education on critical topics to New Zealand and around the world.
About the Founders
Mandy Henk has been involved in community education for more than a decade, as a librarian, writer, and advocate for healthy, just, and vibrant digital communities. She has also authored a book, Economy, Ecology, Equity: The Path to a Carbon Neutral Library (ALA Editions 2014).
Byron Clark is one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s foremost experts on disinformation and New Zealand far-right and alt-right extremism. He is an independent video essayist, disinformation researcher and commentator, and author of the book Fear: New Zealand’s Hostile Underworld of Extremists (Harper Collins 2023.)