Jaclyn Carroll, a PhD candidate at Boston College, reviewed our podcast Does Not Compute in Teaching Sociology with a thoughtful discussion of its potential use as a teaching tool. The review suggests potential alignments of specific episodes to course topics and recommends complementary readings. It’s an excellent resource, and not only because she concludes
Overall, Does Not Compute is an uncommonly comprehensive podcast and an exceptionally well-curated pedagogical resource that could be employed in a diversity of sociology courses.
If you teach a course that could benefit from a “critical perspective on technology and disinformation as these topics relate to race, class, medicine, political sociology, or deviance,” we may have some listening material to add to your syllabus!
We also offer a syllabus integration guide for the show that provides links to relevant materials, much by the scholars who appear on the podcast. The guide also suggests discussion questions and classroom use focused on two main themes: how identity influences belief and the affordances of platforms.
How identity influences belief: Three episodes focus on how intersectional identities underlie how we process information—and the world at large.
The affordances of platforms: Three episodes cover how technologies and platforms influence our online experiences and the information we seek, find, and process.
Announcing the CITAP spring speaker series
For our spring 2022 lecture series, CITAP is proud to host speakers whose work exemplifies our own commitments to holistic research grounded in social differences and conscious of the roles of power and institutions. These researchers’ work explores political processes, democracy and equality, mis- and disinformation, and platforms, networks, and infrastructure. We hope that you’ll join us for the full series, which kicks off this Thursday, February 3, with a talk by Mary Anne Franks: “The Free Speech Industry: How the Internet Commodifies Freedom.”
Future speakers include Catherine Knight Steele and Andre Brock, with additional speakers to be announced.
Recent publications and appearances
Congratulations to affiliate Paul Johnson on the publication of I the People: the Rhetoric of Conservative Populism in the United States, now available from the University of Alabama Press.
“When you google ‘Nelly Orr’ nothing but right-wing media and conspiratorial information is returned about her, and a lot of this is tied back to the Republican strategy of keyword curation that’s been going on since Atwater.” Francesca Tripodi joined Josh Braun of the University of Massachusetts for a conversation on “Should the Capitol Riot Change How We Think About Media Effects?”
“Blockchain says trust moves from institutions — like banks and regulators — to the apolitical ledger. In theory, no one owns the ledger. That means no one can undermine your bargaining power in an exchange. But is that actually how the ledger works? Is an apolitical platform possible in a world where everything we do has a political cause and effect?” Tressie McMillan Cottom explores the culture of blockchain and previews an upcoming interview with Anil Dash.
“’Reasonableness’-based Section 230 reforms would also lead to unintended, speech-averse results.” Affiliate Enrique Armijo reviews proposals to amend Section 230 with a skeptic’s eye in the Florida Law Review.
Coming soon
February 1: Shannon McGregor will discuss “Platforms, polarization, and the identitarian citizen in democracy” at the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public.
February 3: The CITAP Spring Speaker Series kicks off with a visit from Mary Anne Franks of the University of Miami’s law school. She’ll be presenting on “The Free Speech Industry: How the Interet Commodifies Freedom.” RSVP to attend in person or join the livestream.
February 16: Johns Hopkins president Ron Daniels will discuss his book What Universities Owe Democracy at UNC’s Wilson Library. Register to attend in person or online.
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.
Rest of Web
While we’re sharing teaching guides, Ruha Benjamin released a free discussion guide for Race After Technology in honor of the book’s two-year publication anniversary.
We’re still hiring! Our postdoctoral researcher posting is open until February 16.