Presentation by Aaron Mendon- Plasek, 6th December from 12:30- 1:30pm PDT Aaron is a historian of science and technology. His work examines how schemes of quantification, including their material, cultural, and institutional instantiations, have been used to imagine, enact, and justify social order. His first book project offers a revisionist history of machine learning, from […]
Presentation by Victoria E. Thomas, 10th January from 12:30- 1:30pm PDT Dr. Thomas is an Assistant Professor of Media and Public Engagement in the School of Communication. As an interdisciplinary scholar of Black Popular Cultural Studies, she primarily analyzes popular media to articulate how visual culture represents Blackness and Black identities. Her research is committed […]
"We, the Data: Human Rights in the Digital Age" Presentation by Wendy H. Wong, 24th January from 12:30- 1:30pm PDT Human rights are one of the major innovations of the 20th century. Their emergence after World War II and global uptake promised a new world of universalized humanity in which human dignity would be protected, […]
Presentation by Nick Vincent, 7th February from 12:30- 1:30pm PDT Dr. Vincent received his PhD from Northwestern University's Technology and Social Behavior program (a joint degree in computer science and communication), where he worked in the People, Space, and Algorithms Research Group. During graduate school, he was a research intern at Snap and Microsoft. Before […]
"Social Media as a Failed Free Expression Experiment" Presentation by Peter Ives, 6th March from 12:30- 1:30pm PDT The talk will argue that “free speech” controversies are increasingly unresolvable not because people have differing commitments to the principle of free speech, but because they have incompatible underlying rationales for why speech should be free. The […]
Presentation by Jon Corbett, 13th March from 12:30- 1:30pm PDT Dr. Corbett received his BFA at the University of Alberta, and MFA and Ph.D., at UBC Okanagan. During his studies, he developed his career as an application developer, focussing on centralized and de-centralized large-scale data repository and logistics web portals for UPS. Through his Ph.D., […]
Presentation by Sheelagh Carpendale, 3rd April from 12:30- 1:30pm PST Dr. Carpendale is a professor in Computing Science at Simon Fraser University, where she holds an NSERC/SMART Industrial Research Chair in Interactive Technologies. She was previously a professor at University of Calgary, where she held a Canada Research Chair in Information Visualization and an NSERC/AITF/SMART […]
Presentation by Adel Iskandar, 1st May from 12:30- 1:30pm PST. Dr. Iskandar presented a talk at the institute titled, "Revolution By Any Memes: Innovation and Irrevance in Digital Egypt". He is the Associate Professor of Global Communication at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver/Burnaby, Canada. He is the author, co-author, and editor of several works including […]
Presentation by Marisa Parham, 5th June from 12:30- 1:30pm PST Dr. Parham is Professor of English and Digital Studies at the University of Maryland at College Park, where as P.I. she directs the African American Digital and Experimental Humanities initiative (AADHUM) and NarraSpace, an immersive storytelling lab focused on BIPoc experiences. She is also associate […]
Presentation by Parmit Chilana, 3rd July from 12:30- 1:30pm PST Dr. Chilana is Associate Professor and Ebco-Eppich Research Chair at the School of Computing Science at Simon Fraser University. She co-directs the Interactive Experiences Lab at SFU. Her main area of research is in human-computer interaction (HCI), particularly, focusing on inventing and deploying user-centered software […]
Presentation by Esther Weltevrede, 7th August from 12:30- 1:30pm PST Esther Weltevrede is Associate Professor of New Media and Digital Culture in the Media Studies department at the University of Amsterdam. Her research explores the various research affordances of digital media, with a specific interest in conceptual and methodological innovations in the study of mobile […]
Presentation by Eric Borra, 8th August from 12:30- 1:30pm PST Dr. Erik Borra is Assistant Professor at the University of Amsterdam, where he specializes in the intersecting fields of Artificial Intelligence, Platform Studies, and Journalism. He previously served as the Technical Director at the Digital Methods Initiative (DMI), one of Europe's leading schools for internet […]