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DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20260604T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20260604T110000
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SUMMARY:Ruha Benjamin | Online Lecture & Conversations
DESCRIPTION:ESC is co-sponsoring a special online lecture and conversation with Professor Ruha Benjamin on Thursday\, June 4\, from 10:00–11:00 AM ET as part of Digital IDEAS 2026 at The Digital Studies Institute. Because this event is being hosted as part of the Digital IDEAS Summer Institute\, attendance is limited\, and registration is required. Please Register Here. Additional event details and access information will be shared with registered attendees. Digital IDEAS is the DSI’s annual interdisciplinary summer institute exploring the cultural\, social\, and political dimensions of digital technologies. This year’s theme\, AFTER\, considers questions of aftermaths\, afterlives\, afterworlds\, and the hereafter through collaborative dialogue\, creative experimentation\, and critical inquiry. Ruha Benjamin is the Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University\, founding director of the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab\, and award-winning author of Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code\, Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want\, and her recently released fourth book\, Imagination: A Manifesto. Ruha is the recipient of numerous awards and honors\, including the Marguerite Casey Foundation Freedom Scholar Award\, the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton\, and in 2024 she was awarded a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Fellowship. Ruha Benjamin’s scholarship and public work on race\, technology\, justice\, and imagination have profoundly shaped conversations across the humanities\, social sciences\, arts\, and computing fields. We are honored to welcome her to this year’s institute. Digital IDEAS 2026 is co-sponsored by ESC and other partners on campus\, including: The Department of Afroamerican and African Studies\, Department of American Culture\, Department of English Language and Literature\, Department of Film\, Television\, and Media\, Department of Sociology\, Institute for Research on Women and Gender\, Life Changing Education\, Michigan Institute for Data & AI in Society\, School of Information\, and Sweetland Center for Writing.
URL:https://esc.umich.edu/event/ruha-benjamin-online-lecture-conversations/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20260429T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20260429T190000
DTSTAMP:20260415T022525Z
CREATED:20260410T213621Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260415T022525Z
UID:3825-1777482000-1777489200@esc.umich.edu
SUMMARY:ESC Class | 2026 Winter Mixer
DESCRIPTION:   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 Bar Rabbit Hole at 5 – 7 p.m.\, Wednesday\, April 29\, 2026. Rabbit Hole (210 S 1st St map) is located down the alley\, towards the green lights once you get there. Please RSVP here ASAP. RSVP once for yourself and once again if you will bring a guest. Download our high-resolution digital flyer here.  
URL:https://esc.umich.edu/event/esc-class/
LOCATION:210 1st Street\, Ann Arbor
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20260427T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20260427T133000
DTSTAMP:20260424T173359Z
CREATED:20260424T173359Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260424T173359Z
UID:3891-1777291200-1777296600@esc.umich.edu
SUMMARY:Britt S. Paris | Radical Infrastructure: Imagining the Internet from the Ground Up
DESCRIPTION:Britt Paris from Rutgers University will be giving a talk on Monday April 27 at 12:00-1:30 in the Dow Event Room\, hosted by the Political Economy and Algorithms Collective and co-sponsored by ESC. Please RSVP if you plan to attend in person\, and consider signing up for a research chat or for dinner. Please come if you’d like to hear about her amazing new book\, and/or have thoughts about infrastructure\, collective action\, the Internet and how it could all be reimagined! Abstract: What if we could start over and build the Internet from scratch? How could it be rebuilt or reimagined as more equitable and just? For more than eight years\, Britt S. Paris investigated alternative Internet infrastructure projects\, conducting interviews\, site visits\, and policy analysis. In this expansive and interdisciplinary study\, Paris critically examines the myriad and contradictory promises\, utility\, and obstacles to building a completely new Internet. Radical Infrastructure locates and analyzes the boundaries of how people and groups imagine\, build\, deploy\, maintain\, and use the Internet as they survive—and even dare to thrive—in challenging political\, economic\, and environmental contexts. Ultimately\, Paris encourages active reflection among scholars\, policymakers\, and activists and reveals more grounded imaginaries\, tactics\, and opportunities for future people-centered projects.
URL:https://esc.umich.edu/event/britt-s-paris-radical-infrastructure-imagining-the-internet-from-the-ground-up/
LOCATION:LCSIB 4320 Dow Room & Hybrid
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20260324T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20260324T163000
DTSTAMP:20251223T005851Z
CREATED:20251223T005645Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251223T005851Z
UID:3800-1774364400-1774369800@esc.umich.edu
SUMMARY:Anita Say Chan | Predatory Data: Eugenics in Big Tech and Our Fight for an Independent Future
DESCRIPTION:Abstract The insidious legacy of eugenics lives on in the techno-surveillance\, algorithmic authoritarianism\, and data-driven discrimination of Big Tech. This talk illuminates the throughline between the 19th century’s anti-immigration and eugenics movements and our sprawling systems of techno-surveillance and algorithmic discrimination. I’ll address how the AI-driven and market-based models of Big Tech are built on data that exploit women\, immigrant groups\, and other minoritized populations\, amplifying social hierarchies and AI’s predictions of majoritarian outcomes as the most probable and “ideal” futures. But it doesn’t have to be this way. This talk explains how it happened and how we can fight back. Anita Say Chan\, PhD (she/her) is a scholar and educator dedicated to feminist and decolonial approaches to technology. She is a Professor of Information Sciences and Media\, and founder of the Community Data Clinic at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her latest book\, Predatory Data: Eugenics in Big Tech and Our Fight for an Independent Future\, was published in 2025 with U. of California Press.\nWe strive to make our events accessible to all participants. This event will be a hybrid event with both a physical meeting space and an online meeting space. Please register in advance for the online Zoom Webinar here: https://myumi.ch/W6rkm Please register for the physical meeting space at the University of Michigan’s Central Campus: TBD CART will be provided. If you anticipate needing accommodations to participate\, please email Eric Mancini at dsi-administration@umich.edu. Please note that some accommodations must be arranged in advance\, and we encourage you to contact us as soon as possible. Co-Sponsors: Department of American Culture; Center for Ethics\, Society\, and Computing; Department of English Language & Literature; Department of Film\, Television\, and Media; Institute for Research on Women and Gender; Science\, Technology\, and Public Policy Program Please check out the DSI event page for more information.
URL:https://esc.umich.edu/event/anita-say-chan-predatory-data-eugenics-in-big-tech-and-our-fight-for-an-independent-future/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20260316T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20260316T173000
DTSTAMP:20260304T174943Z
CREATED:20260304T174943Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260304T174943Z
UID:3820-1773676800-1773682200@esc.umich.edu
SUMMARY:Luis Felipe R. Murillo | Common Circuits: Hacking Alternative Technopolitical Futures
DESCRIPTION:Abstract A digital world in relentless movement—from artificial intelligence to ubiquitous computing—has been captured and reinvented as a monoculture by Silicon Valley “big tech” and venture capital firms. Yet very little is discussed in the public sphere about existing alternatives. Based on long-term field research in the Pacific Rim\, Common Circuits explores a transnational network of hacker spaces and projects that stand as potent\, but often invisible\, alternatives to the dominant tech industry. In what ways have hackers challenged corporate projects of digital development? How do hacker-activist collectives prefigure alternative technological futures through community projects? In this talk\, I will address these questions through the analysis of the hard challenges of collaborative\, autonomous community-making through technical objects conceived by hackers as convivial\, shared technologies. Speaker Bio\nLuis Felipe R. Murillo is Assistant Professor in Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame. His work is dedicated to the anthropological study of the “commons” in science and technology with a focus on the intersections between moral economies\, political cultures\, and infrastructures of computing.   This talk has been cosponsored by the Department of Anthropology and the Center for Ethics\, Society\, and Computing. For more information or assistance with accessibility\, contact sts-staff@umich.edu.
URL:https://esc.umich.edu/event/luis-felipe-r-murillo-common-circuits-hacking-alternative-technopolitical-futures/
LOCATION:1014 Tisch Hall\, 435 S State St\, Ann Arbor
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20260224T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20260224T163000
DTSTAMP:20260211T210102Z
CREATED:20251222T224821Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260211T210102Z
UID:3796-1771945200-1771950600@esc.umich.edu
SUMMARY:micha cárdenas | Trans Ecologies of the Real and the Virtual in Contemporary Art
DESCRIPTION:Abstract For the survival of all our ecologies\, we must refuse human centricity and build networks of care across lines of species and liveliness. This talk stitches a line from trans people to an expanded conception of trans\, using a focus on trans ecological poetics to go beyond a focus on the human. I broaden the operation of “trans” in trans media studies to include non-human movements\, such as those made by animals\, viruses\, and movements across the boundaries between different environments. Trans media studies can extend the fields of media studies\, transgender studies\, and trans of color studies to connect more deeply to and through non-human entities. Still\, any injunction for queer and trans studies to go beyond the human must reconcile with the history of trans\, Palestinian\, Black\, and Indigenous people being deemed less than human. In this talk\, I use the method of algorithmic analysis proposed in my book Poetic Operations: Trans of Color Art in Digital Media (Duke UP\, 2022) to explore the operations that make up the poetics of three contemporary artworks— Sin Sol (2020)\, an augmented reality installation I created with the Critical Realities Studio\, Acoustic Ocean (2018)\, a short film by Ursula Biemann and “Of Whales”\, a film created using virtual reality created by Wu Tsang. Speaker Bio micha cárdenas\, PhD\, MFA\, is an artist\, author and Professor of Critical Race & Ethnic Studies at the University of California\, Santa Cruz. She is the director of the Critical Realities Studio. Her debut novel Atoms Never Touch (AK Press 2023) imagines trans latina love crossing multiple quantum realities. Her academic monograph P oetic Operations : Trans of Color Art in Digital Media (Duke UP 2022) was the co-winner of the Gloria Anzaldúa Book Prize in 2022 from the National Women’s Studies Association “for groundbreaking monographs in women’s studies that makes significant multicultural feminist contributions to women of color/transnational scholarship”. cárdenas was a winner of the 2022 Anonymous Was a Woman artist award. She is currently working on her next academic monograph After Man: Trans Ecologies and Climate Justice\, as well as The Probability Engine\, a multi-disciplinary artwork imagining futures of climate justice. She is a first generation Colombian American. We strive to make our events accessible to all participants. This will be a virtual event held in an online meeting space. Please register in advance for the online Zoom Webinar here: https://myumi.ch/G23ey. CART captioning will be provided. If you anticipate needing additional accommodations to participate\, please email Eric Mancini at dsi-administration@umich.edu. Please note that some accommodations must be arranged in advance\, and we encourage you to contact us as soon as possible. This event is hosted by DSI and co-sponsored by ESC. Please check out the DSI event page for more information.
URL:https://esc.umich.edu/event/micha-cardenas-trans-ecologies-of-the-real-and-the-virtual-in-contemporary-art/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20251202T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20251202T143000
DTSTAMP:20251111T155859Z
CREATED:20251111T155613Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251111T155859Z
UID:3773-1764680400-1764685800@esc.umich.edu
SUMMARY:DSI RIW | Critical AI Lunch
DESCRIPTION:Connect over lunch with folks from a wide variety of groups\, methods\, departments\, and disciplines who are interested in or working on Critical AI! During the lunch\, there will be lightning talks from multiple graduate students in the interdisciplinary workshop. It is a wonderful chance to get to know each others’ focuses\, followed by open discussion and mingling time to connect directly with others. Lunch will be catered by Haifa Falafel. Please RSVP here. ESC is co-sponsoring this event.
URL:https://esc.umich.edu/event/dsi-riw-critical-ai-lunch/
LOCATION:Mason Hall\, G325
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20251024T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20251024T180000
DTSTAMP:20251016T155320Z
CREATED:20251016T155320Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251016T155320Z
UID:3762-1761321600-1761328800@esc.umich.edu
SUMMARY:Cuba's Digital Revolution: Between Quiescence and Revolt
DESCRIPTION:Abstract \nA digital revolution is reshaping Cuba. Despite restrictions on free speech and assembly\, a new generation is using social media to debate\, inform\, and challenge the authoritarian status quo. From animal rights campaigns to the mass July 2021 protests\, these movements have been organized and documented through independent digital platforms. Young people\, intellectuals\, and artists are building unique online spaces for national dialogues and a more inclusive Cuba. Join us for a dialogue with Dr. Michaelanne Thomas at UMSI and Harold Cárdenas Lema\, co-founder and former director of one of the foremost digital spaces for Cubans by Cubans on the island\, La Joebn Cuba. \nThis event is co-sponsored by the LSA Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies\, Donia Human Rights Center\, and the Center for Emerging Democracies. \n 
URL:https://esc.umich.edu/event/cubas-digital-revolution-between-quiescence-and-revolt/
LOCATION:Weiser Hall 555
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20251020T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20251020T190000
DTSTAMP:20250926T174355Z
CREATED:20250918T212807Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250926T174355Z
UID:3718-1760979600-1760986800@esc.umich.edu
SUMMARY:Karen Hao | Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI
DESCRIPTION:Talk Abstract As Artificial Intelligence claims increasing influence over our lives\, it’s easy to believe AI’s creeping dominance is inevitable. But is it? Join award-winning journalist Karen Hao and Patrick Barry\, clinical assistant professor at the University of Michigan Law School\, for an eye-opening discussion on Hao’s best-selling book\, “Empire of AI.” Please use the link here to register for this event.   As the first reporter to gain extensive access to OpenAI when its founder\, Sam Altman\, promoted it as an altruistic research non-profit\, Hao has followed the company’s meteoric rise. Drawing on seven years of reporting across five continents\, Hao sheds light on the hidden impacts of AI —  from the exploitation of data workers in the Global South to the immense environmental costs of its energy and water consumption. Discover whose priorities are being advanced\, whose voices are overlooked\, and how we can work together to build a more equitable future for the world with AI. “Empire of AI” will be available for purchase from BookSweet at the event. The author will stay for a short book signing after the program. Karen Hao is an author and award-winning journalist covering the intersections of AI & society. She is a contributor to The Atlantic and leads the Pulitzer Center’s AI Spotlight Series\, a program training thousands of journalists around the world on how to cover AI. Previously\, she was a foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal and a senior editor at MIT Technology Review. Hao was recognized with an American National Magazine Award in 2022 for “outstanding achievement for magazine journalists under the age of 30\,” and an American Humanist Media Award in 2024. Her book\, “The Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI\,” was published in May 2025 and was an instant New York Times bestseller. Patrick Barry is a clinical assistant professor and the director of digital academic initiatives at the University of Michigan Law School\, as well as a visiting lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School and the UCLA School of Law. His research interests include persuasion\, creativity\, team dynamics\, and artificial intelligence. He is the author of twelve books and has created several online series for the educational platform Coursera\, including “Good with Words: Writing and Editing” and “AI for Lawyers and Other Advocates.” Center for Ethics\, Society\, and Computing (ESC) is co-sponsoring this event with Science\, Technology\, and Public Policy (STTP) Program\, U-M School of Information\, Dissonance Event Series\, and Information and Technology Services.
URL:https://esc.umich.edu/event/karen-hao-empire-of-ai-dreams-and-nightmares-in-sam-altmans-openai/
LOCATION:Rackham Auditorium 915 E. Washington Street
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20251014T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20251014T200000
DTSTAMP:20250926T174949Z
CREATED:20250926T174949Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250926T174949Z
UID:3736-1760461200-1760472000@esc.umich.edu
SUMMARY:Empire of AI | Book Reading Community
DESCRIPTION:Karen Hao will give a book talk on Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI in Rackham Auditorium on October 20th\, 5 pm. Prior to the talk\, ESC will co-host a book reading event for folks who would like to read and discuss the book together on the evening of October 14th (Tuesday). A virtual pre-event discussion of the book will be facilitated among UMSI and STAMPS. Please sign up for the Community Read. You will receive a free copy of the book\, while supplies last. Priority will be given to folks who are able to attend both events. This community read is sponsored by the University of Michigan’s School of Information\, Stamps School of Art & Design\, and the Center for Ethics\, Society\, and Computing\, and is hosted by the Intersectional Tech Lab. 
URL:https://esc.umich.edu/event/empire-of-ai-book-reading-community/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20251013T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20251013T190000
DTSTAMP:20251006T181909Z
CREATED:20251001T180534Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251006T181909Z
UID:3745-1760374800-1760382000@esc.umich.edu
SUMMARY:ESC HATCH | 2025 Fall Mixer
DESCRIPTION:The Center for Ethics\, Society\, and Computing invites all ESC researchers and an ESC-curious guests to our Fall mixer for the ESC Community at Bløm Meadworks 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.\, Monday\, October 13\, 2025. This includes food\, drink\, and cozy fall weather.  Please RSVP here as soon as possible. RSVP once for yourself and once again if you will bring a guest!  
URL:https://esc.umich.edu/event/esc-2025-fall-mixer/
LOCATION:Bløm Meadworks\, 100 S. 4th Avenue\, Suite 110\, Ann Arbor 48104
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20251003T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20251003T170000
DTSTAMP:20251001T144106Z
CREATED:20251001T144106Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251001T144106Z
UID:3741-1759503600-1759510800@esc.umich.edu
SUMMARY:Search Engines: Search History Volume 2 Zine Launch
DESCRIPTION:Please register here if you plan to attend in person or via Zoom. Search History is a student-led zine publication from the University of Michigan community\, hosted by Search Engines: Art\, Tech\, Justice. Search Engines is funded by the U-M Arts Initiative and the DISCO Network\, housed in the Digital Studies Institute. In the last year\, Search Engines brought artists such as Astria Suparak\, Beth Coleman\, Morehshin Allahyari\, Paul Preciado\, and Molly Soda to the Ann Arbor campus for workshops\, performances\, and panel discussions. The Search History zine mediates on the implications of an increasingly digital world and asks questions like: How does art help us redefine what technology is? What is your vision of the future and how can art and technology make it a reality? And how do interdisciplinary practices in technology expand traditional knowledge production and storytelling? Search History Vol. 2 is titled and themed “Into the Rabbit Hole.” The Search History Zine Launch will include conversation\, food\, and reading from zine contributors. Join us on Friday\, October 3rd\, 3PM-5PM ET in or on Zoom to celebrate the launch of Search History Vol. 2! We want to make our events accessible to all participants. CART services will be provided. If you anticipate needing accommodations to participate or would like help filling out the RSVP form\, please email Giselle Mills at gimills@umich.edu. This event is co-sponsored by the Center for Ethics\, Society\, and Computing\, along with Arts Initiative\, Institute for Research on Women and Gender\, and Science\, Technology\, & Public Policy.
URL:https://esc.umich.edu/event/search-engines-search-history-volume-2-zine-launch/
LOCATION:1010 Weiser Hall
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20250930T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20250930T170000
DTSTAMP:20250922T173859Z
CREATED:20250918T195904Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250922T173859Z
UID:3713-1759244400-1759251600@esc.umich.edu
SUMMARY:Neda Atanasoski & Nassim Parvin: Forging Feminist Futures from 'Creepy' Technologies
DESCRIPTION:Talk Abstract In this talk\, Neda Atanasoski and Nassim Parvin will discuss their recent book and edited volume\, Technocreep and the Politics of Things Not Seen\, published by Duke University Press in May 2025. New and emerging technologies\, especially ones that infiltrate intimate spaces\, relations\, homes\, and bodies\, are often referred to as creepy in media and political discourses. The book introduces a feminist theory of creep\, substantiating it through critical engagement with smart homes\, smart dust\, smart desires\, and smart forests\, toward dreams of feminist futures. Contributing authors further illuminate what is otherwise obscured\, assumed\, or dismissed in characterizations of technology as creepy or creeping. Considering diverse technologies\, such as border surveillance and China’s credit system\, as well as sexcams and home assistants\, the volume’s essays and artworks demonstrate that the potentials and pitfalls of artificial intelligence and digital and robotic technologies cannot be assessed through binaries of seeing/being seen\, privacy/surveillance\, or harmful/useful. Neda Atanasoski is Professor and Chair of the Harriet Tubman Department of Women\, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Maryland\, College Park and Associate Director of Education for the Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland (AIM). Atanasoski’s interdisciplinary research has focused on feminism and AI\, feminist and critical race approaches to science and technology studies\, AI and the future of work\, militarism\, and human rights and humanitarianism. She is the author of Humanitarian Violence: The U.S. Deployment of Diversity (2013)\, co-author of Surrogate Humanity: Race\, Robots\, and the Politics of Technological Futures (2019)\, and co-editor of Postsocialist Politics and the Ends of Revolution (2022) and Technocreep and the Politics of Things Not Seen (2025). Nassim Parvin is a Professor at the University of Washington (UW) Information School where she also serves as the Associate Dean for Inclusion\, Diversity\, Equity\, Access & Sovereignty (IDEAS). Dr. Parvin’s interdisciplinary research integrates theoretically-driven humanistic scholarship and design-based inquiry. Her papers have appeared in design\, HCI\, and STS venues. Her designs have been deployed at nonprofit organizations and exhibited in venues such as the Smithsonian Museum. She is the co-author and co-editor of the book Technocreep and the Politics of Things Not Seen (2025). She is an award-winning educator and served as one of the lead coeditors of Catalyst: Feminism\, Theory\, Technoscience from 2018-2023. We strive to make our events accessible to all participants. This event will be a hybrid event with both a physical meeting space and an online meeting space.  A free copy of the authors’ new book\, Technocreep and the Politics of Things Not Seen\, will be offered to the first 25 in-person attendees on site. Please register in advance for the online Zoom Webinar here: https://myumi.ch/QwGnk Please register for the physical meeting space at the University of Michigan’s Central Campus here: https://myumi.ch/794by CART (live captioning) services will be provided. If you anticipate needing accommodations to participate\, please email Eric Mancini at dsi-administration@umich.edu. Please note that some accommodations must be arranged in advance\, and we encourage you to contact us as soon as possible. Digital Studies Institue is hosting the event. The Center for Ethics\, Society\, and Computing is co-sponsoring the event with DISCO Network.
URL:https://esc.umich.edu/event/neda-atanasoski-nassim-parvin-forging-feminist-futures-from-creepy-technologies/
LOCATION:1010 Weiser Hall
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20250424T143000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20250424T160000
DTSTAMP:20250404T181108Z
CREATED:20250326T015756Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250404T181108Z
UID:3642-1745505000-1745510400@esc.umich.edu
SUMMARY:Cara Wallis Book Launch | Social Media and Ordinary Life: Affect\, Ethics\, and Aspiration in Contemporary China
DESCRIPTION:Dr. Cara Wallis will launch her new book\, Social Media and Ordinary Life: Affect\, Ethics\, and Aspiration in Contemporary China on April 24\, 2:30 pm to 4:00 pm at NQ Space 2435. She will be in conversation with Dr. Silvia Lindtner and Dr. Yi-Li Wu. \nPlease mark the date and join us! Light refreshments and book giveaway will be on site! \n 
URL:https://esc.umich.edu/event/cara-wallis-book-launch-social-media-and-ordinary-life/
LOCATION:North Quad Space 2435
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20250414T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20250414T150000
DTSTAMP:20250403T201111Z
CREATED:20250403T201111Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250403T201111Z
UID:3649-1744639200-1744642800@esc.umich.edu
SUMMARY:DISCO Event | Building the Indigenous Internet
DESCRIPTION:Abstract This panel brings together key voices in infrastructure as broadly imagined\, data sovereignty and decolonial perspectives to critically explore the history\, present\, and future of the indigenous Internet. The conversation will showcase how Indigenous knowledge has and will continue to shape data worlds by bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives on emerging technologies—ranging from computer science\, artificial intelligence\, social media\, online activism\, the work of infrastructure and circuit building\, and beyond. By centering Indigenous voices\, the discussion aims to create transformative visions for a sustainable\, equitable\, and inclusive digital future while inviting speculative thinking about post-settler digital worlds. Free copies of Indigenous Currencies: Leaving Some for the Rest in the Digital Age by Ashley Cordes will be provided to the first 50 attendees. All are welcome and we strongly encourage undergraduate and graduate students to attend. Advance registration is recommended: Register to attend in person: https://myumi.ch/N6wx9 Register to attend on Zoom: https://myumi.ch/egDpX   Meet the PanelistsAshley Cordes (Coquille/KōKwel) is an Assistant Professor of Indigenous Media in ENVS and Data Science at the University of Oregon and a recent American Council of Learned Societies Fellow. Her research lies at the intersection of Indigenous science and technology studies\, digital media\, and environmental/place-based studies. She is interested in how Indigenous culture and technology producers leverage discursive\, technological\, and media forms of “digital Indigeneity” toward Tribal economic independence\, representational and data sovereignty\, Indigenous cultural revitalization\, and the resurgence of Indigenous knowledge systems. Her research in AI has been published in the Indigenous Protocols Artificial Intelligence position paper and her other works on representation\, digital humanities\, and Indigenous methods have been published in journals such as Cultural Studies >Critical Methodologies\, Journal of International and Intercultural Communication\, and Feminist Media Studies. She is the author of the book\, Indigenous Currencies: Leaving Some for the Rest in the Digital Age in production with MIT Press. Majerle Lister is a Diné student whose research interest ranges from Indigenous geography\, Native American Studies\, and Critical Agrarian Studies. Focusing on land regimes in the Navajo Nation\, he is interested in how land relations are shaped by development projects and historical Diné land relations and practices. His research explores the development discourses and practices within the Former Bennett Freeze Area in Western Navajo Nation. Lisa Nakamura is the Gwendolyn Calvert Baker Collegiate Professor in the Department of American Culture\, and the founding Director of the Digital Studies Institute at the University of Michigan\, Ann Arbor. Since 1994\, Nakamura has written books and articles on digital bodies\, race\, and gender in online environments\, on toxicity in video game culture\, and the many reasons that Internet research needs ethnic and gender studies. These books include\, Race After the Internet (co-edited with Peter Chow-White\, Routledge\, 2011); Digitizing Race: Visual Cultures of the Internet (Minnesota\, 2007); Cybertypes: Race\, Ethnicity\, and Identity on the Internet (Routledge\, 2002); and Race in Cyberspace (co-edited with Beth Kolko and Gil Rodman\, Routledge\, 2000). In November 2019\, Nakamura gave a TED NYC talk about her research called “The Internet is a Trash Fire. Here’s How to Fix It.”   This event is co-sponsored by Center for Ethics\, Society\, and Computing\, Computer Science and Engineering\, Department of American Culture\, Department of Comparative Literature\, Department of Film\, Television\, and Media\nDepartment of History\, Native American Studies\, Program in Computing for the Arts and Sciences\, Science\, Technology & Society Program\, Science\, Technology\, and Public Policy Program\, and School of Information.
URL:https://esc.umich.edu/event/disco-event-building-the-indigenous-internet/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20250411T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20250411T130000
DTSTAMP:20250409T012301Z
CREATED:20250408T221631Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250409T012301Z
UID:3662-1744369200-1744376400@esc.umich.edu
SUMMARY:Political Economy & Algorithms RIW | David Widder: Basic Research\, Lethal Effects: Military AI Research Funding as Enlistment
DESCRIPTION:Abstract In the context of unprecedented U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) budgets\, this talk examines the recent history of DoD funding for academic research in algorithmically based warfighting. I draw from a corpus of DoD grant solicitations from 2007 to 2023\, focusing on those addressed to researchers in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Considering the implications of DoD funding for academic research\, the talk proceeds through three analytic sections. In the first\, I offer a critical examination of the distinction between basic and applied research\, showing how funding calls framed as basic research nonetheless enlist researchers in a war fighting agenda. In the second\, I offer a diachronic analysis of the corpus\, showing how a ‘one small problem’ caveat\, in which affirmation of progress in military technologies is qualified by acknowledgement of outstanding problems\, becomes justification for additional investments in research. I close with an analysis of DoD aspirations based on a subset of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) grant solicitations for the use of AI in battlefield applications. Taken together\, I argue that grant solicitations work as a vehicle for the mutual enlistment of DoD funding agencies and the academic AI research community in setting research agendas. The trope of basic research in this context offers shelter from significant moral questions that military applications of one’s research would raise\, by obscuring the connections that implicate researchers in U.S. militarism. Speaker Bio David Gray Widder (he/him) studies how people creating “Artificial Intelligence” systems think about the downstream harms their systems make possible\, and the wider cultural\, political\, and economic logics which shape these thoughts. He is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Digital Life Initiative at Cornell Tech\, and earned his PhD from the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Please register here for the calendar invite! The talk will be live-streamed via Zoom. Political Economy and Algorithms is a Rackham Interdisciplinary Workshop. Read more about it here. This event is co-sponsored by ESC.
URL:https://esc.umich.edu/event/political-economy-algorithms-riw-david-widder-basic-research-lethal-effects-military-ai-research-funding-as-enlistment/
LOCATION:NQ 2255
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20250408T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20250408T173000
DTSTAMP:20250407T161334Z
CREATED:20250128T162543Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250407T161334Z
UID:3511-1744128000-1744133400@esc.umich.edu
SUMMARY:Canceled: Maria Repnikova | Competing for "Soft Power": China’s Uneven Image-Making in Africa
DESCRIPTION:This talk is canceled and will be rescheduled in the academic year of 2025-2026. Please stay tuned for more information! \nAbstract \nThrough the critical case study of Ethiopia\, this book project identifies three core mechanisms of China’s image-making in Africa: tangible enticement through material and experiential offerings\, ideational promotion of values and governance practices\, and censorial influence through guarding the production and diffusion of China narratives. The in-depth fieldwork in China and Ethiopia further demonstrates the fractures in China’s image-making as Chinese messengers can improvise official agendas and Ethiopian recipients strategically appropriate and negotiate Chinese power. Counterintuitively China’s engagement with Africa has also reinforced a shared longing for the West as a professional destination and standard setter. Challenging the popular claims about China as replacing the West in the Global South\, therefore\, this study reveals the ambitions\, but also the inconsistencies in China’s influence-wielding\, as well as the looming shadow of the West in mediating the Sino-African encounter. \nBio: \nDr. Maria Repnikova is an Associate Professor in Global Communication at Georgia State University. This year she is also a non-residential Wilson China Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars. She received her doctorate (DPhil) in Politics at the University of Oxford\, where she was a Rhodes Scholar. \nThis event is co-sponsored by the Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies.
URL:https://esc.umich.edu/event/maria-repnikova-competing-for-soft-power-chinas-uneven-image-making-in-africa/
LOCATION:North Quad Space 2435
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20250404T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20250405T170000
DTSTAMP:20250312T180522Z
CREATED:20250312T175334Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250312T180522Z
UID:3602-1743757200-1743872400@esc.umich.edu
SUMMARY:Social Media & Society in India Symposium 2025 (SMSI 2025)
DESCRIPTION:Welcome to the Social Media & Society in India Symposium (SMSI 2025)  taking place on April 4-5\, 2025\, at the University of Michigan\, Ann Arbor. Even if you do not do work in India\, take a look at the exciting list of topics\, some of which speak to how social media is impacting society everywhere around the world\, and it’s free to view online! Please register to join us in person or online. The conference is running in its 5th iteration and has\, in the past\, featured a unique blend of speakers who are typically practitioners and professionals. This year’s symposium brings together leading journalists\, digital activists\, researchers\, and media professionals to explore the evolving role of social media in democracy\, activism\, business\, and representation in India. \nPanels & Talks – The symposium will comprise of 5 sessions over two days\, featuring lightning talks and moderated discussions. Day 1 (April 4) of the symposium will feature panels related to the theme of Citizenship and Democracy\, and Day 2 (April 5) will feature panels centered around the Social and Economic Aspects of social media platforms. \nStudent Research Session – Day 2 will also feature a session with poster presentations by student researchers on various aspects of Social Media and Society \n1:1 Office Hours and Interactions  – A chance to set up 10-minute zoom appointments with your favorite speakers at the conference \nAI & Social Media Workshop – Day 2 will feature a workshop on “Integrating state-of-the-art AI tools in Social Media work” led by Dr. Kiran Garimella \nPlease view the program schedule and speakers here. See more detailed information about our symposium here. This event is co-sponsored by ESC.
URL:https://esc.umich.edu/event/social-media-society-in-india-symposium-2025-smsi-2025/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20250402T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20250402T170000
DTSTAMP:20250312T180346Z
CREATED:20250312T180346Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250312T180346Z
UID:3611-1743602400-1743613200@esc.umich.edu
SUMMARY:What is Critical Now? Media Studies Between Crisis and Critique | Graduate Student Workshop & Panel Lecture
DESCRIPTION:Media today are our situation; they constitute the fabric of living. But a number of new crises–and subjects–have profoundly shaped the field of media studies\, including an environmental turn in media studies\, elemental media\, ubiquitous computing\, distributed sensing\, and pervasive algorithms and artificial intelligence. Accordingly\, this conference revists and updates Mark B.N. Hansen and WJT Mitchell’s landmark Critical Terms for Media Studies (2010) by accounting for how these new ways of thinking impact the subjective\, aesthetic\, political\, material and economic registers of life and living in the twenty-first century. In particular\, the conference will explore the many disciplinary and post-disciplinary transformations in the study of media since its publication (including the moment of “post-critique”). To that end\, the conference will bring together an interdisciplinary set of emerging scholars external to the University of Michigan with UM graduate students and faculty to reconsider the project of media critique today. The morning session (10:00 am-11:30 am\, Digital Studies Institute Lab Space) is reserved for a limited-capacity working session with the invited speakers for graduate students involved broadly in the critical study of media. RSVP here: https://myumi.ch/qZkRx The afternoon (2:00 pm- 5:00 pm\, Hatcher Graduate Library\, Hatcher Gallery\, Room 100) will consist of four 45-minute “Keyword Panel” sessions\, with a talk by each guest speaker followed by a dialogue with U-M faculty. The panel discussion is open to graduate students\, the Digital Studies Institute\, University of Michigan faculty and students\, and the general public to reflect on post-disciplinary or trans-disciplinary turns within the study of media technology and culture as well as new limits and possibilities for media critique. RSVP here: https://myumi.ch/qZkRx Speaker Bios: Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal is an Associate Professor of Digital Humanities\, Artificial Intelligence\, and Media Studies at the University of Basel\, Switzerland. He holds a PhD in English Literature\, with a designated emphasis in Science and Technology Studies\, from University of California\, Davis. Ranjodh’s research\, which traces the aesthetic and political entanglements of our technological cultures\, lies at the intersections of science fiction studies\, critical media theory\, and histories of science and technology. Thomas Patrick Pringle is an Assistant Professor of Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Southern California. He received his Ph.D. in Modern Culture and Media from Brown University. Pringle focuses on historical approaches to film and media\, with an emphasis on how media shape how environments are conceived in a given place and time and how technologies interact with physical environments. ​​Anna Shechtman is an Assistant Professor of Literatures in English\, specializing in media studies and American literature. She is writing a two-volume history of the “media” and “data” concepts in the United States. The first examines the social formations and technologies of production that have allowed “media” to incorporate—and perhaps even supersede—the categories of “art\,” “literature\,” “communication\,” and “culture” in the second half of the 20th century. Hannah Zeavin is a scholar\, writer\, and editor whose work centers on the history of human sciences (psychoanalysis\, psychology\, and psychiatry)\, the history of technology and media\, feminist science and technology studies\, and media theory. Zeavin is an Assistant Professor of History (Science / North America) in the Department of History and The Berkeley Center for New Media at UC Berkeley. We want to make our events accessible to all participants. CART services will be provided. If you anticipate needing accommodations to participate or would like help filling out the RSVP form\, please email Rebecca Uliasz at ruliasz@umich.edu. This event is co-sponsored by ESC\, along with Media Studies (Graduate Student) Interest Group\, Department of Comparative Literature\,  Department of English Language & Literature\,  Department of Film\, Television and Media\,  Department of Communication and Media\, Digital Studies Institute.
URL:https://esc.umich.edu/event/what-is-critical-now-media-studies-between-crisis-and-critique-graduate-student-workshop-panel-lecture/
LOCATION:100 Hatcher Graduate Library
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20250401T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20250401T163000
DTSTAMP:20240904T215101Z
CREATED:20240904T215101Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240904T215101Z
UID:3313-1743519600-1743525000@esc.umich.edu
SUMMARY:Elisa Giardina Papa | Data Heresy: A Queer Incomputable Tale
DESCRIPTION: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 disciplined and trained to see. Tracing\, bounding-boxing\, and labeling are key operations used to teach machines to separate Data from data\, signal from noise\, and orderly things from disorderly ones. They are also\, Giardina Papa argues\, the onto-epistemological operations of modern imperial and colonial conquest. To address AI’s normative impulse to divide and classify\, create hierarchies and produce difference\, we need to understand machine vision not only as a “new” tool of extractive capitalism but also\, more importantly\, as one of the many tools of a recursive hegemonic ordering of the world. Ultimately\, this talk will be an invitation to reflect on modes of seeing otherwise which remain radically unruly\, irreducible\, and incomputable.   Speaker Bio: Elisa Giardina Papa is an artist and scholar\, Assistant Professor of Modern Culture and Media at Brown University. Her research-based art practice seeks forms of knowledge and desire that have been lost or forgotten\, disqualified\, and rendered nonsensical by hegemonic demands for order and legibility. Working across Artificial intelligence-based projects\, large-scale video installations\, experimental films\, and writing\, she draws attention to those aspects of our lives that remain radically incomputable. Her work has been exhibited at the 59th Biennale di Venezia (The Milk of Dreams)\, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA’s Modern Mondays)\, the Whitney Museum (Sunrise/Sunset Commission)\, Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin\, ICA and Frieze London\, BFI London Film Festival\, Vienna Secession\, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt\, Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt (HKW) Berlin\, 6th Buenos Aires Bienal de la Imagen en Movimiento\, Seoul Mediacity Biennale 2018\, the Center for Contemporary Art Tashkent\, Uzbekistan\, M+ Hong Kong\, among others. Her latest art book\, Leaking Subjects and Bounding Boxes: On Training AI (Sorry Press\, 2022)\, documents the methods currently used to teach Artificial intelligence to capture\, classify\, and order the world and presents a collection of images that exceed computation. Forthcoming essays include the foreword for Informatics of Domination (Duke University Press\, 2024). Elisa Giardina Papa co-founded the artist collective Radha May. Alongside Indian artist Nupur Mathur and Ugandan artist Bathsheba Okwenje\, they collaborate on performances and art installations that uncover hidden histories and marginalized sites\, examining their intersections with gender\, sexuality\, and colonialism. Elisa Giardina Papa holds a Ph.D. in Film and Media from the University of California\, Berkeley\, and has previously held positions at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University and the Rhode Island School of Design. Accessibility Statement: We want to make our events accessible to all participants. This event will be a hybrid event with both a physical meeting space and an online meeting space. Please register in advance for the online Zoom Webinar here: https://bit.ly/3ArOQz8 Please register for the physical meeting space at the University of Michigan’s Central Campus: https://myumi.ch/pkrey   CART will be provided. If you anticipate needing accommodations to participate\, please email Eric Mancini at dsi-administration@umich.edu. Please note that some accommodations must be arranged in advance and we encourage you to contact us as soon as possible.
URL:https://esc.umich.edu/event/elisa-giardina-papa-data-heresy-a-queer-incomputable-tale/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20250331T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20250331T183000
DTSTAMP:20250327T015655Z
CREATED:20250327T015539Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250327T015655Z
UID:3644-1743436800-1743445800@esc.umich.edu
SUMMARY:DISCO | TikTok\, DeepSeek and the Fear of Chinese Tech in Nationalist Times
DESCRIPTION: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 towards trade with other nations\, and the rush to maintain U.S. dominance over the tech industry\, anti-Chinese sentiment has (re)surfaced in ways that echo earlier American anxieties about Asian labor competition and racial difference. This panel will bring together Asian American media scholars and culture creators to analyze what this climate means for our shifting technological landscape\, Asian American communities\, and race relations in the U.S. Free boba will be provided to the first 100 in-person attendees. All are welcome and we strongly encourage undergraduate and graduate students to attend. Advance registration is recommended: Register to attend in person: https://myumi.ch/AZjJG Register to attend on Zoom: https://myumi.ch/RmG6y Meet the Panelists Tara Fickle is an Associate Professor of Asian American Studies at Northwestern University. Her first book\, The Race Card: From Gaming Technologies to Model Minorities\, (NYU Press\, 2019\, winner of Before Columbus Foundation’s American Book Award)\, explores how games have been used to establish and combat Asian and Asian American racial stereotypes. Fickle’s current research projects include the racialized dimensions of esports\, virtual currency harvesting in video games\, and a digital archive of the canonical Asian American anthology\, Aiiieeeee! She teaches courses on Asian American culture\, gaming\, comics\, and the digital humanities. Ian Shin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History and the Department of American Culture at the University of Michigan. He is a historian of the 19th- and 20th-century United States and is interested in how “culture\,” broadly defined\, reflects but also shapes the politics of its time. His research and teaching concentrate on U.S.-China relations\, U.S. empire\, immigration\, and the Asian American experience. His book manuscript—entitled Imperial Stewards: Chinese Art and the Cultural Origins of America’s Pacific Century—examines Chinese art collecting in the U.S. in the early 20th century as a contested process of knowledge production that bolstered ideas of American exceptionalism\, even while it relied on transpacific circuits of labor and expertise. Jeff Yang has been observing\, exploring\, and writing about the Asian American community for over thirty years. He launched one of the first Asian American national magazines\, A. Magazine\, in the late nineties and early 2000s\, and now writes frequently for CNN\, New York Times\, and elsewhere. He has authored three books—Jackie Chan’s New York Times bestselling memoir I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action; Once Upon a Time in China\, a history of the cinemas of Hong Kong\, Taiwan\, and the Mainland; and Eastern Standard Time: A Guide to Asian Influence on American Culture\, and recently coauthored the New York Times bestselling RISE: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now. Meet the Moderator Lisa Nakamura is the Gwendolyn Calvert Baker Collegiate Professor in the Department of American Culture\, and the founding Director of the Digital Studies Institute at the University of Michigan\, Ann Arbor. Since 1994\, Nakamura has written books and articles on digital bodies\, race\, and gender in online environments\, on toxicity in video game culture\, and the many reasons that Internet research needs ethnic and gender studies. These books include\, Race After the Internet (co-edited with Peter Chow-White\, Routledge\, 2011); Digitizing Race: Visual Cultures of the Internet (Minnesota\, 2007); Cybertypes: Race\, Ethnicity\, and Identity on the Internet (Routledge\, 2002); and Race in Cyberspace (co-edited with Beth Kolko and Gil Rodman\, Routledge\, 2000). In November 2019\, Nakamura gave a TED NYC talk about her research called “The Internet is a Trash Fire. Here’s How to Fix It.” This event is co-sponsored by Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies Program\, Center for Ethics\, Society\, and Computing\, Department of American Culture\, Department of Comparative Literature\, Department of Film\, Television\, and Media\, Department of History\, Department of Political Science\, Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies\, Program in International and Comparative Studies\, School of Information\, Science\, Technology\, and Public Policy Program\, and Science\, Technology\, and Society Program.
URL:https://esc.umich.edu/event/disco-tiktok-deepseek-and-the-fear-of-chinese-tech-in-nationalist-times/
LOCATION:Weiser Hall 10th Floor Event Space\, 500 Church St.\, Ann Arbor\, MI
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20250327T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20250327T190000
DTSTAMP:20250312T174739Z
CREATED:20250303T173452Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250312T174739Z
UID:3568-1743094800-1743102000@esc.umich.edu
SUMMARY:ESC EMPIRE
DESCRIPTION: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 RSVP here by Sunday\, March 23. RSVP once for yourself and once again if you will bring a guest. Directions For Fully Accessible Entry: On the ground floor\, there is a door right by the staircase. Ring the doorbell and someone from The Circ staff will come down to open it. A staff member will walk you to the Lounge. Feel Free to download our high-resolution flyer here.
URL:https://esc.umich.edu/event/empire/
LOCATION:The Circ Bar\, 2nd Floor Private Lounge\, 210 S 1st St\, Ann Arbor\, MI\, United States
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20250317T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20250317T163000
DTSTAMP:20250310T025024Z
CREATED:20250128T164110Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250310T025024Z
UID:3515-1742223600-1742229000@esc.umich.edu
SUMMARY:Taomo Zhou | From Military-Industrial Complex to Global Supply Chain: A History of the Electronics Industry in Shenzhen\, China
DESCRIPTION: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 China’s first Special Economic Zones—into the “Silicon Valley of hardware” and the headquarters of U.S.-blacklisted Information and Communication Technology (ICT) giants Huawei and ZTE. Focusing on the period between the 1980s and 2000s\, I highlight three key processes that fuelled Shenzhen’s rapid rise in the electronics industry: Large-scale relocation of military-industry factories from China’s interior to Shenzhen provided the city with essential human capital; Export-oriented manufacturing facilitated the inflow of advanced technologies and expertise from Hong Kong\, Taiwan\, Japan and the US\, driving technological upgrades; Shenzhen’s status as an institutional experiment with a market economy in socialist China encouraged the innovative repurposing of Cold War-era military technologies\, such as adapting military radar for real-time price transmission at the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. These intertwined processes—migration\, circulation\, and conversion—positioned Shenzhen as a pivotal node for global technological diffusion and solidified its role as a critical technological contact zone connecting China with the rest of the world. Bio: Taomo Zhou is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chinese Studies and Dean’s Chair in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences\, National University of Singapore. Her first book\, Migration in the Time of Revolution: China\, Indonesia and the Cold War (Cornell University Press\, 2019)\, won a Foreign Affairs “Best Books of 2020” award and an Honorable Mention for the 2021 Harry J. Benda Prize from the Association for Asian Studies. Taomo is currently working on her second book project entitled “Made in Shenzhen: A Global History of China’s First Special Economic Zone\,” which is under advance contract with Stanford University Press. More details about Dr. Taomo Zhou can be found here. Please register here if you plan to attend this event online. This event is co-sponsored by the Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies.
URL:https://esc.umich.edu/event/taomo-zhou-from-military-industrial-complex-to-global-supply-chain-a-history-of-the-electronics-industry-in-shenzhen-china/
LOCATION:Ehrlicher Room\, NQ3100
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20250313T173000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20250314T180000
DTSTAMP:20250310T124012Z
CREATED:20250206T162215Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250310T124012Z
UID:3530-1741887000-1741975200@esc.umich.edu
SUMMARY:STS 25th Anniversary Conference
DESCRIPTION: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 ever-expanding world of U-M STS. \nHere is a brief agenda of the event. Please RSVP here!\n\n\n\nThursday\, March 13\, Rackham Assembly Hall \n5:30 pm: Keynote\, Gabrielle Hecht\, Stanford University: “Inside-Out Earth” \nFollowed by a catered dinner for guests who RSVP \nFriday\, March 14\, 1014 Tisch\, 8:15-6 pm \n8:15-8:35 am: Light Breakfast \n8:35-8:45 am: Welcome \n8:45-10:30 am: Orders of Extraction \n10:45-12:00 pm: Centering the Marginalized in Medical STS \n12:00-1:15 pm: Lunch \n1:15-2:30 pm: Engaged STS and Environmental Crisis \n2:45-4:30 pm: The Ambivalent Politics of Ambiguous Data \n4:45-6:00: Reflections on the 25th Anniversary of U-M STS: Concluding Roundtable \n\nThis event is made possible by the generous support of the School of Information\, the English Language and Literature Department\, the History Department\, the Communications Department\, the Digital Studies Institute\, the Anthropology Department\, the Sociology Department\, the Eisenberg Institute\, the Anthro-History Department\, the Center for Ethics\, Society\, and Computing\, the Science\, Technology\, and Public Policy program\, the African Studies Center\, the LSA Research Office\, the LSA Humanities Institute\, and the RCI Block Grants for Arts and Humanities.
URL:https://esc.umich.edu/event/sts-25th-anniversary-conference/
LOCATION:1014 Tisch Hall\, 435 S State St\, Ann Arbor
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20250312T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20250312T163000
DTSTAMP:20250122T200156Z
CREATED:20250113T160626Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250122T200156Z
UID:3487-1741791600-1741797000@esc.umich.edu
SUMMARY:Oliver Haimson | Trans Technologies Book Launch Event
DESCRIPTION: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 50 in-person attendees. Please see details of the event here. RSVP for in-person attendance here. Register to attend online here. Book description:\nMainstream technologies often exclude or marginalize transgender users. Trans Technologies describes what happens when trans people take technology design into their own hands. Oliver L. Haimson\, whose research into gender transition and technology has defined this area of study\, draws on transgender studies and his own in-depth interviews with more than 100 creators of technology—including apps\, games\, health resources\, extended reality systems\, and supplies designed to address challenges trans people face—to explain what trans technology is and to explore its present possibilities and limitations\, as well as its future prospects. Haimson surveys the landscape of trans technologies to reveal the design processes that brought these technologies to life\, and to show how trans people often must rely on community\, technology\, and the combination of the two to meet their basic needs and challenges. His work not only identifies the role of trans technology in caring for individuals within the trans community but also shows how trans technology creation empowers some trans people to create their own tools for navigating the world. Articulating which trans needs and challenges are currently being addressed by technology and which still need to be addressed; describing how trans technology creators are accomplishing this work; examining how privilege\, race\, and access to resources impact which trans technologies are built and who may be left out; and highlighting new areas of innovation to be explored\, Trans Technologies opens the way to meaningful social change. Author bio:\nDr. Oliver Haimson is an assistant professor at University of Michigan School of Information and author of Trans Technologies (MIT Press\, 2025). He is a recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER award. Haimson conducts social computing research focused on envisioning and designing trans technologies. ESC is co-sponsoring the event with the University of Michigan School of Information (UMSI)\, Digital Studies Institute (DSI)\, Institute for Research on Women & Gender (IRWG)\, and Spectrum Center.
URL:https://esc.umich.edu/event/oliver-haimson-trans-technologies-book-launch-event/
LOCATION:North Quad Space 2435
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20250224T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20250224T173000
DTSTAMP:20250221T183207Z
CREATED:20250221T182748Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250221T183207Z
UID:3539-1740412800-1740418200@esc.umich.edu
SUMMARY:ESC Faculty Talk | Nazanin Andalibi: Emotion AI in the Future of Work
DESCRIPTION:Abstract: \nEmotion 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 surveillance concerns\, it continues to be patented\, developed\, and used without public debate\, resistance\, or regulation. \nIn this talk\, I highlight some of my research group’s work focusing on the workplace to discuss: 1) how emotion AI technologies are conceived of by their inventors and what values are embedded in their design\, and 2) the perspectives of the humans who produce the data that make emotion AI possible\, and whose experiences are shaped by these technologies: data subjects. I argue that emotion AI is not just technical\, it is sociotechnical\, political\, and enacts/shifts power. I show how emotion AI could harm the very conditions its advocates promise it will improve (e.g.\, worker wellbeing\, work conditions)\, rendering it a problematic choice for addressing structural challenges workers face in the workplace. I conclude that even with technical reforms (e.g.\, reducing biases\, improving accuracy) many emotion AI-inflicted harms (e.g.\, emotional labor\, privacy harms) would persist. \n  \nBio: \nNazanin Andalibi is an assistant professor in the School of Information at the University of Michigan and is an affiliate faculty member at the university’s Digital Studies Institute; Center for Ethics\, Society\, and Computing; and Center for Social Media Responsibility. As a social computing and human-computer interaction (HCI) scholar\, her research examines how marginality is experienced\, enacted\, facilitated\, or disrupted in and as mediated through sociotechnical systems such as artificial intelligence and social media. For example\, a central theme of her research examines the privacy\, ethical\, justice\, and policy implications of emotion AI technologies in high-stakes contexts including the workplace\, job interviews\, social media\, and health care.
URL:https://esc.umich.edu/event/esc-faculty-talk-nazanin-andalibi-emotion-ai-in-the-future-of-work/
LOCATION:1014 Tisch Hall\, 435 S State St\, Ann Arbor
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20250218T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20250218T163000
DTSTAMP:20250113T162105Z
CREATED:20250113T161013Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250113T162105Z
UID:3490-1739890800-1739896200@esc.umich.edu
SUMMARY:Silicon Valley Imperialism: Techno Fantasies and Frictions
DESCRIPTION: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 how that logic has become manifest in postsocialist Romania. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and archival research in Romania and the United States\, McElroy exposes the mechanisms through which the appeal of Silicon Valley technocapitalism devours space and societies\, displaces residents\, and generates extreme income inequality in order to expand its reach. The book also explores how in Romania\, dreams of privatization have updated fascist pasts\, often in the name of anticommunism. At the same time\, McElroy accounts for the ways that activists and artists resist Silicon Valley capitalist logics\, building upon socialist-era worldviews not to restore state socialism but rather to establish more just social formations—helping materialize the unbecoming of Silicon Valley. The talk will conclude with a discussion of how Silicon Valley imperialism impacts transnational geographies of landlordism\, gesturing to some of McElroy’s newer work. Erin McElroy is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Washington\, where their work focuses upon intersections of gentrification\, technology\, empire\, and racial capitalism\, alongside housing justice organizing and transnational solidarities. McElroy is author of Silicon Valley Imperialism: Techno Fantasies and Frictions in Postsocialist Times (Duke University Press\, 2024) and coeditor of Counterpoints: A San Francisco Bay Area Atlas of Displacement and Resistance (PM Press\, 2021). Additionally\, McElroy is cofounder of the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project—a data visualization\, counter-cartography\, and digital media collective that produces tools\, maps\, reports\, murals\, zines\, oral histories\, and more to further the work of housing justice. At UW\, McElroy runs Landlord Tech Watch\, which produces collaborative research and collective knowledge on the dispossessive technologies of landlordism. We strive to make our events accessible to all participants. This event will be a hybrid event with both a physical meeting space and an online meeting space. Please register in advance for the online Zoom Webinar here: https://bit.ly/4fuhmzc  Please register for the physical meeting space at the University of Michigan’s Central Campus here: https://myumi.ch/Jwy95 CART will be provided. If you anticipate needing accommodations to participate\, please email Eric Mancini at dsi-administration@umich.edu. Please note that some accommodations must be arranged in advance and we encourage you to contact us as soon as possible. ESC is co-sponsoring the event with the Digital Studies Insitute\, the Science\, Technology\, & Society Program\, Institute for Research on Women and Gender\, Department of Communication & Media
URL:https://esc.umich.edu/event/silicon-valley-imperialism-techno-fantasies-and-frictions/
LOCATION:Room 1040 (Multipurpose Room) LSA Building
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20250123T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20250123T200000
DTSTAMP:20250113T155624Z
CREATED:20240904T215500Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250113T155624Z
UID:3316-1737655200-1737662400@esc.umich.edu
SUMMARY:Search Engines: Molly Soda
DESCRIPTION: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 of social media platforms and modes\, and has been presented both online and in gallery installations. Please find more information about the talk here. Please register for the talk here: https://forms.gle/GnfChLegHMPN36Jd6 The talk is hosted by Search Engines: Art\, Tech\, Justice and the DISCO Network\, housed in the University of Michigan’s Digital Studies Institute. ESC is co-sponsoring the talk with\, Arts Initiative\, Department of Communication and Media\, Department of the History of Art\, Department of Film\, Television\, and Media\, and Institute for Research on Women and Gender.  
URL:https://esc.umich.edu/event/molly-soda/
LOCATION:Helmut Stern Auditorium Museum of Art
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20241107T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20241107T130000
DTSTAMP:20241107T132327Z
CREATED:20241018T031008Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241107T132327Z
UID:3436-1730980800-1730984400@esc.umich.edu
SUMMARY:Lilly Irani | Algorithms of Suspicion: Quasi-criminalization and the erosion of work
DESCRIPTION: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 study begins with the problem of opaque account suspensions suffered by good faith workers on the platform Amazon Mechanical Turk. Through an investigation of patents\, research papers\, and industry documentation\, the chapter constructs a view of the models and assumptions Amazon deploys to guess the difference between good and bad workers. These algorithms and the opaque organizational routines that deploy them submit workers to automated surveillance\, suspicion\, and terminating action – managing workers at scale and at a distance. These practices may have discriminatory consequences\, sometimes in ways recognized by legally recognized protected categories and sometimes not. I conclude by arguing that existing digital rights frameworks must be revised to give workers rights and protections against platforms’ algorithmic forms of management.  \nBio \nLilly Irani is an Associate Professor of Communication & Science Studies at University of California\, San Diego where she is the Faculty Director of the UC San Diego Labor Center. She also serves as  affiliate faculty in Computer Science\, the Design Lab\, Institute for Practical Ethics\, and the program in Critical Gender Studies. She is author of Chasing Innovation: Making Entrepreneurial Citizens in Modern India (Princeton University Press\, 2019) and Redacted (with Jesse Marx) (Taller California\, 2021). Chasing Innovation has been awarded the 2020 International Communication Association Outstanding Book Award and the 2019 Diana Forsythe Prize for feminist anthropological research on work\, science\, or technology\, including biomedicine. Her research examines the cultural politics of high-tech work and the counter-practices they generate\, as both an ethnographer\, a designer\, and a former technology worker. She is a co-founder of the digital worker advocacy organization Turkopticon. Her work has appeared at ACM SIGCHI\, New Media & Society\, Science\, Technology & Human Values\, South Atlantic Quarterly\, and other venues. She sits on the Editorial Committee of Public Culture and on the Editorial Advisory Boards of New Technology\, Work\, and Employment and Design and Culture. She has a Ph.D. in Informatics from University of California\, Irvine. \nThis talk is hosted by Michigan AI seminar series and Women in Computing Seminar series at the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department\, co-sponsored by ESC.
URL:https://esc.umich.edu/event/lilly-irani-algorithms-of-suspicion-quasi-criminalization-and-the-erosion-of-wor/
LOCATION:BBB 3725
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20241101T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20241101T150000
DTSTAMP:20241031T180713Z
CREATED:20240904T184304Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241031T180713Z
UID:3298-1730469600-1730473200@esc.umich.edu
SUMMARY:Voting While Misled | Social Media\, Disinformation and the Election
DESCRIPTION:November’s election brings with it unprecedented disinformation technologies\, from new uses of social media platforms to generative AI. Join our panel of experts to discuss how our institutions\, platforms\, and politicians are both combating and enabling this threat to democracy. Panel discussion to be followed by an interactive Q&A with the viewers. A conversation with Ceren Budak\, associate professor of information\, School of Information\, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science\, College of Engineering and faculty associate\, Center for Political Studies\, Institute for Social Research; Ariel Hasell\, assistant professor of communication and media\, College of Literature Science\, and the Arts; and Barbara McQuade\, professor from practice\, University of Michigan Law School. Moderated by Christian Sandvig\, H Marshall McLuhan Collegiate Professor of Digital Media\, professor of information\, School of Information\, faculty associate\, Center for Political Studies\, Institute for Social Research\, professor of communication and media\, professor in the Digital Studies Institute\, College of Literature\, Science\, and the Arts and professor of art and design\, Penny W Stamps School of Art and Design. Please RSVP here. And watch us on YouTube. This event is part of the InfoSpeaks series and is co-sponsored by the Center for ESC. See the event listing on the website here: https://esc.umich.edu/event/online-event-disinformation-and-the-election/  
URL:https://esc.umich.edu/event/online-event-disinformation-and-the-election/
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