Additional Information

Instruction Mode: In Person
Course will be taught by visiting Mellon Humanities postdoc Morgan Thompson. From predictive-policing algorithms to workplace surveillance systems, technologies originally developed for policing, welfare systems, and prisons have rapidly expanded into other domains of society, including hospitals, schools, banking, social services, and digital life. While the sophistication and ease with which data can be collected and shared has advanced, social data has long been collected by governments. How does the social classification used by the state impact those who are classified? Who ought to be in control of maintaining this data or deciding its uses? Can technologies created for criminal justice systems be extracted from their biased roots? How do these technologies interact with our societal and ethical values of privacy, equality, and justice? How do considerations of gender and race shape technologies, technical design, and technology policies? This class culminates in a focus on justice- and ethics-oriented approaches to science and technology that envision how technology might contribute to liberatory ends.