Courses that I have taught/co-taught/want to teach
Everyday ethics of living with data and AI in the majority world
This course explores existing efforts to reframe the global south as home to the majority of the human population and investigates the diverse ethics, politics, and experiences of living with data and AI in this majority world. The course outlined the ground realities, histories, processes, and framing narratives from diverse academic fields (information science, philosophy, communication, sociology, etc.) that provide the foundation for studying what makes data-driven AI-based systems possible in the majority world.
I designed and taught this course in Spring 2023 at the Department of Information Science, Cornell University.
Ethical, Legal, and Policy Foundations of Information Technology
This course investigates the ethical, legal, and policy foundations of contemporary information technology in the United States. Through lectures, readings, discussions, and short assignments, the course addresses contemporary challenges ranging from questions of inequality and waste in computing to the contests over intellectual property and privacy in a networked world.
This is a redesigned version of Information, Ethics, Law, and Policy course that Steven Jackson co-taught with me in Spring 2019 at the Department of Information Science, Cornell University. This version includes Problem-Based Learning exercises.
The Triad of Users, Use, and Technology
This course on social studies of technology focuses on the practice of creating and using technological artifacts. Students are expected to critically examine how designers develop products, how users negotiate with their ‘intended’ use, and the different meanings of use as artifacts become everyday objects through a series of writing assignments.
I designed and taught a version of this course in Fall 2013 at the Department of Science & Technology Studies, Cornell University.
Living in a Digital World
This course critically examines how computing technology and culture shape each other. Students are expected to identify how information technologies reproduce, reinforce, and rework historical trends, norms, and values. It examines the values embodied in the cultures of computing and considers alternative ways of imagining information technologies.
I supported Malte Ziewitz in designing and teaching of versions of this course in Spring 2015 and Spring 2016 at the Department of Science & Technology Studies, Cornell University.
Foundational debates in STS scholarship
This course is designed to provide an overview of Science and Technology Studies (STS) by focusing on some of the major themes and concerns in the field. It is an opportunity to investigate how STS scholars go about their work by critically engaging with some of the foundational debates that have shaped the intellectual trajectory of the discipline. Students will be expected to unpack these debates during seminars by taking positions and exploring the limits of their positions while defending them.
Unpacking infrastructural work
This course focuses on core issues and concerns that have shaped the study of infrastructures, particularly information infrastructures, and the role of governments around the world in building, maintaining, and regulating them. Students are expected to identify a problem that requires an infrastructural solution and explore the tensions that emerge as the solution they envision encounters the sprawling conditions of the world.