Syllabus
Courses
[] Undergraduate courses are designed with two classes per week
[] Graduate courses are designed with one seminar per week
Information Ethics, Law, and Policy
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 taught by Steven Jackson to incorporate Problem-Based Learning in its curriculum.
STS and its Discontents
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.
Matters of Infrastructure
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.
Users and Their Stories
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.
Computing Cultures
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 the design and teaching of versions of this course in Spring 2015 and Spring 2016.