The CITAP spring speaker lineup is now final, and we’re delighted to present five scholars whose work exemplifies our core commitments to research grounded in social differences and conscious of the role of power and institutions. Following Mary Anne Franks’s talk last week, we’ll be hosting:
March 10: Jessa Lingel
April 7: Andre Brock
April 21: Jonathan Ong
May 5: Catherine Knight Steele
If you don’t yet know these presenters or their work, their bios and additional details are posted on the event page. We hope you’ll save the date and join us for the full series!
Work for CITAP
Our postdoctoral researcher position closes to new applications on Feb 16, so if you’ve been thinking of applying, now’s the time!
We’re also looking for a communications and project coordinator to support CITAP’s research, community, and impact. It’s an excellent early career role for a generalist with excellent writing skills and an interest in the intersection of technology and democracy.
Please share the posting with your networks (and alumni lists!)
Recent publications and appearances
CITAP affiliate Noelle Wilson updated our dataset of state laws regulating disclosure and recordkeeping for digital political advertising to include three new laws passed in Virginia, Colorado, and Alaska. These three states join eight others in regulating online election ads.
Tressie McMillan Cottom’s series on cryptocurrency and NFTs continued this week with a dive into folk economics, or “the very human impulse to describe complex economic processes in lay terms,” and how this tendency leaves us more vulnerable to misunderstanding or underestimating the true risk of these systems.
“The Russian trolls that spread disinformation during the 2016 election, as outlined in the Mueller report, also targeted Black Americans specifically, according to research by Deen Freelon from the University of North Carolina, on the Russian-based Internet Research Agency.” ABC News looked at the phenomenon of racialized disinformation and efforts to counter it.
Coming soon
February 16: Johns Hopkins president Ron Daniels will discuss his book What Universities Owe Democracy in a virtual appearance. Register to attend.
February 18: The call for papers is up for CITAP’s cosponsored ICA preconference What Comes After Disinformation Studies? The preconference will take place May 25, 2022 in Paris, France. Submissions due February 18.
March 10: The CITAP spring speaker series continues with Jessa Lingel, associate professor at the Penn Annenberg School and author of An Internet for the People: The Politics and Promise of craigslist. In-person and livestream attendees are welcome!
Rest of Web
The lineup for SSRC’s Just Tech platform launch on March 1 includes Ruha Benjamin, Timnit Gebru, Alondra Nelson, and Safiya Noble and is sure to be a conversation worth joining: https://t.co/SljZ5eIBgo.
It’s nothing to do with cryptocurrency or racial platform capitalism, but Tressie McMillan Cottom’s Big Homie Tips series includes some advice gems for scholars, creatives, and anyone finding their voice.
That feel when YouTube inadvertently illustrates the point perfectly: a sampling of the algorithmic recommendations displayed next to our video of Mary Anne Franks’s talk on The Free Speech Industry.