Also streamed online via Zoom during the event. Abstract This talk examines the combination of policies, practices, and algorithms of suspicion that control workers’ access to wages and work on digital labor platforms. I show how “fraud” acts as a quasi-legal category that legitimizes and protects platform operators’ unilateral decisions to fire workers. This case […]

Molly Soda is a NYC-based artist, designer, writer, and educator. Her distinctly post-internet creative practice bridges the worlds of performance art and Internet art, often drawing from her own experience as an Incredibly-Online individual as well as from a rich archive of digital artifacts accumulated over the past two decades. Her work spans a variety […]

In this presentation, Erin McElroy will discuss Silicon Valley Imperialism: Techno Fantasies and Frictions in Postsocialist Times, just published with Duke University Press with Matt Bui. The book maps out processes of gentrification, racial dispossession, and economic predation that drove the development of Silicon Valley in the San Francisco Bay Area and also looks at […]

Abstract: Emotion AI, increasingly used in mundane (e.g., entertainment) to high-stakes (e.g., education, healthcare, workplace) contexts, refers to technologies that claim to algorithmically recognize, detect, predict, and infer emotions, emotional states, moods, and even mental health status using a wide range of input data. While emotion AI is critiqued for associated scientific validity, bias, and […]

A conversation with UMSI Assistant Professor of Information Oliver L. Haimson, author of Trans Technologies (MIT Press), hosted by UMSI Professor Kishonna Gray, on how technology creates new possibilities for transgender people, and how trans experiences, in turn, create new possibilities for technology. Book signing and reception to follow. Free book copies for the first […]

On March 13-14, 2025, STS is hosting a 25th Anniversary Conference featuring presentations from graduate student alumni and former and current UM STS faculty members. STS program envisions this as an academic family reunion—a chance to share a meal with old friends, meet new colleagues, reflect on past accomplishments, and discover what’s new in the […]

Abstract In the context of contemporary geopolitical dynamics, discussions about "delinking" and "derisking" have become increasingly prominent, particularly in relation to the ongoing U.S.-China trade war. This talk examines the reverse of the current trend: the emergence of the global supply chain that transformed China into the "factory of the world" and elevated Shenzhen—one of […]

The Center for Ethics, Society, and Computing invites all ESC researchers and an ESC-curious guest to our Winter mixer for the ESC Community at The Circ at 5:00 - 7:00 p.m., Thursday, March 27, 2025. This includes a fireplace, patio, food, and drink. This event will include interactive activities on the theme ESC Empire. Please […]

Abstract For the first time, two of the most popular apps in the world – TikTok and the A.I. chatbot DeepSeek – are Chinese. American legislative efforts to restrict or outright ban Chinese apps and other technologies on the grounds of national security have dominated recent headlines. During a time of political turmoil, increasing hostility […]

Event Abstract: In this talk, Elisa Giardina Papa will outline the theoretical and archival research which informs two of her experimental video installations, Cleaning Emotional Data and “U Scantu”: A Disorderly Tale. Presenting images she collected while working as a “data cleaner” for various AI systems, she will address the ways in which machines are […]