Resignation and Digital Hegemony: Universities Within the American Tech‐Industrial Complex

ABSTRACT This paper examines the escalating entanglement between American universities and what the authors term the tech‐industrial complex—a political‐economic nexus linking the state and private technology industries through infrastructures of data, surveillance, and digital governance. Building upon historical precedents from McCarthyism and COINTELPRO to the Trump administrations, the paper argues that contemporary academic repression differs from earlier eras not merely in ideology but in infrastructure: a digital ecosystem of participatory surveillance, anticipatory obedience, and neoliberal efficiency. Using case studies from recent U.S. higher education—including institutional compliance with federal executive orders, social media surveillance, and the rise of platforms such as Indiana's Eyes on Education portal—the authors trace how universities have become both subjects and agents of this expanding technopolitical order. The analysis situates this development within a broader genealogy of American state power, neoliberalism, and digital capitalism, highlighting the complicity of academic institutions in sustaining systems of control. In response, the authors advocate for renewed anthropological and humanistic engagement that resists resignation, promotes open access, and reclaims critical inquiry within and beyond the academy. Ultimately, the paper contends that understanding and contesting the tech‐industrial complex is essential for reimagining intellectual labor and sustaining democratic life in an age of pervasive digital surveillance.