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SUMMARY:Fall Speaker Series – Dr. Zenia Kish
DESCRIPTION:Remediating the Soil: Grounding Elemental Media in the Russo-Ukrainian War\nWithin a year of Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine\, Ukraine’s Institute for Soil Science and Agrochemistry Research assessed that at least 10.5 million hectares\, or a quarter\, of the country’s agricultural land had been degraded by the war. Subjected to damage from bombs and artillery\, compaction from heavy military vehicles\, and chemical contamination from explosives and fuel spills\, Ukraine’s soils will require what Maria Puig de la Bellacasa (2019) refers to as long-term “ecological cultures of care” to heal. Approaching soil through the lens of both visual and elemental media\, this talk considers how the liveliness and wounding of soil ecosystems is represented amidst the ongoing war from the tank-stopping agency of the “rasputitsa” (mud season) to the cascading impacts of the invasion on the food system in Ukraine and abroad. Arguing that Russia’s war on Ukraine is\, in part\, an agricultural war\, the talk will explore how the battlescape’s highly mediated soil grounds the entangled visual and temporal politics of the war—soil hosts its destructive capacity and also distinctive timescales of repair and regrowth. \n \nZenia Kish is Assistant Professor of Communication and Digital Media Studies at Ontario Tech University. Her work on global digital media\, food politics\, digital agriculture\, and philanthropy has been published journals including American Quarterly\, Cultural Studies\, New Media & Society\, and Antipode (forthcoming). Her co-edited anthology Food Instagram: Identity\, Influence\, and Negotiation recently won the 2023 Best Edited Volume Prize from the Association for the Study of Food and Society.
URL:https://digitaldemocracies.org/calendar/ddi-fall-speaker-series-dr-zenia-kish/
LOCATION:SFU Harbour Centre room HC2200\, 555 W Hastings St\, Vancouver\, British Columbia\, V6B 4N6\, Canada
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20241127T123000
DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20241127T133000
DTSTAMP:20260403T115909
CREATED:20240812T004011Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240812T004011Z
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SUMMARY:DDI Fall Speaker Series - Dr. Kathleen Creel
DESCRIPTION:Presentation by Kathleen Creel\, 27th November from 12:30- 1:30pm PDT \n\nDr Creel is Assistant Professor at Northeastern University\, cross appointed between the Department of Philosophy and Religion and Khoury College of Computer Sciences. She was the inaugral Embedded EthiCS Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University. Her current research explores the moral\, political\, and epistemic implications of machine learning as it is used in non-state automated decision making and in science. I have other ongoing projects on early modern philosophy and general philosophy of science. \n\nPlease email ddi_comms@sfu.ca to rsvp.
URL:https://digitaldemocracies.org/calendar/ddi-fall-speaker-series-dr-kathleen-creel/
LOCATION:DDI/ zoom
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20250115T123000
DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20250115T133000
DTSTAMP:20260403T115909
CREATED:20241212T211740Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241212T212405Z
UID:5955-1736944200-1736947800@digitaldemocracies.org
SUMMARY:Digital Democracies Institute Speaker Series - Brooke Erin Duffy
DESCRIPTION:You are invited to join the inaugural session of the Digital Democracies Speaker Spring Speaker Series\, featuring Brooke Erin Duffy (Cornell University). \nThe Visibility Bind: Platform Labor\, Precarity\, and Resistance in the Creator Economy \nIn the aftermath of the global pandemic\, Big Tech companies have touted the Creator Economy as an Entrepreneurial Promised Land for self-enterprising artists\, entertainers\, and information intermediaries. But this image is belied by the precarious–even perilous–realities of platform-dependent labor. Drawing upon more than 100 interviews\, I illuminate the source of their plight: a platformed visibility bind. In a labor market where algorithms are key arbiters of success (and failure)\, creators struggle to defy the imminent threat of invisibility. But they must also navigate the risks of hypervisibility—ranging from burnout and cultural appropriation to trolling and targeted harassment. The consequences of this bind are\, I argue\, amplified for marginalized creators—including women\, people of color\, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. \nCrucially\, though\, some creators are strategically harnessing their platform in/visibility to call attention to platform injustices and wider labor issues. The talk closes by considering creator-led pursuits of labor solidarity\, activism\, and resistance. \nBrooke Erin Duffy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at Cornell University\, where she is also a member of the Feminist\, Gender\, and Sexuality Studies faculty.  Her research interests include digital and social media industries; gender\, identity\, and inequality; and the impact of new technologies on creative work and labor. She’s the author of two monographs on gender and cultural production\, including (Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love: Gender\, Social Media\, and Aspirational Work (Yale University Press\, 2017)\, which draws upon research with fashion bloggers\, YouTubers\, and Instagrammers to explore the culture and politics of the digital labor. In addition\, she is co-author of the newly released book Platforms & Cultural Production (Polity\, 2021). \nDate: January 15\, 12.30 – 1.30pm PST \nVenue: Digital Democracies Institute\, TASC2\, room 7460\, SFU Burnaby campus and on Zoom. \nContact us to access the Zoom link.
URL:https://digitaldemocracies.org/calendar/digital-democracies-institute-speaker-series-brooke-erin-duffy/
LOCATION:DDI\, 7460 - TASC 2\, SFU\, Burnaby\, BC\, Canada
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20250212T123000
DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20250212T133000
DTSTAMP:20260403T115909
CREATED:20241212T211858Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241212T212420Z
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SUMMARY:Digital Democracies Institute Speaker Series - Adrian Ivakhiv
DESCRIPTION:We invite you to attend the second session of the Digital Democracies Speaker Spring Series featuring Adrian Ivakhiv (Simon Fraser University).  \nEcologies of the Multipolar Information Disorder: On Recent Elections\, Current Wars\, and Climate Disasters to Come \nBio: Born to World War Two refugee parents from Ukraine\, Adrian Ivakhiv grew up in Toronto\, Canada. From 2003 to 2024 he was a Professor of Environmental Thought and Culture at the University of Vermont\, where he served as Steven Rubenstein Professor of Environment and Natural Resources and founding coordinator of EcoCultureLab. He previously taught at York University (Toronto) and the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh\, has held fellowships at Freie Universität Berlin and Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyïv\, and has conducted fieldwork on eco-cultural conflicts in the U.S. Southwest\, the British Isles\, western and central Ukraine\, maritime eastern Canada\, and Vermont. His books include “Claiming Sacred Ground: Pilgrims and Politics at Glastonbury and Sedona” (2001)\, “Ecologies of the Moving Image: Cinema\, Affect\, Nature” (2013)\, “Shadowing the Anthropocene: Eco-Realism for Turbulent Times” (2018)\, the co-edited “Routledge Handbook of Ecomedia Studies” (2022)\, and the forthcoming “Terra Invicta: Ukrainian Wartime Reimaginings for a Habitable Earth” and “The New Lives of Images: Digital Ecologies and Anthropocene Imaginaries in More-than-Human Worlds.” A Fulbright Scholar (Germany/Ukraine)\, Canada-USSR Scholar (1989-90)\, and Fellow of the Gund Institute for Environment\, the Cinepoetics Centre for Advanced Film Studies\, and the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society\, he has presented his work in numerous countries around the world. He also plays and composes music. \nThe presentation will be in person at the DDI (TASC2\, room 7460) and online via Zoom. \nDate: February 12\, 12.30 – 1.30 pm \nVenue: Digital Democracies Institute\, TASC2\, room 7460\, SFU Burnaby campus. \nContact us to access the Zoom link.
URL:https://digitaldemocracies.org/calendar/digital-democracies-institute-speaker-series-adrian-ivakhiv/
LOCATION:DDI\, 7460 - TASC 2\, SFU\, Burnaby\, BC\, Canada
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20250313T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20250313T180000
DTSTAMP:20260403T115909
CREATED:20250226T194554Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250226T194554Z
UID:6070-1741883400-1741888800@digitaldemocracies.org
SUMMARY:Bo Ruberg - How to Queer the World: Radical Worldbuilding through Video Games
DESCRIPTION:Abstract: Today more than ever\, we need the power to build new worlds. Video games are exceptional tools for worldbuilding because every video game itself is a world. Yet\, in video games and other media forms\, worldbuilding is still commonly understood as an expression of storytelling. A queer reading of video games shows us that worldbuilding means something much deeper and more radical than narrative elements that sit on the surface of the world. In video games\, worlds are built on the foundation of interaction design\, software simulations\, graphical dimensions\, and other elements often overlooked as too technical to hold cultural meaning. By analyzing these elements of game development as acts of worldbuilding\, we can reimagine worldbuilding itself: as a process of challenging firmly held beliefs about the fundamental structures\, conventions\, and irreducible truths that give shape to the world around us. Video games also powerfully model the concept of queer worldbuilding–a practice of building worlds that destabilizes the fundamental logics of our universe and builds new worlds founded on alternate expressions of gender\, sexuality\, embodiment\, intimacy\, and desire.\n\nBio: Bo Ruberg\, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department of Film and Media Studies and an affiliate faculty member in the Department of Informatics at the University of California\, Irvine\, as well as the co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies. Their research explores gender and sexuality in digital media with a focus on LGBTQ topics in video games. They are the author of four books: Video Games Have Always Been Queer (NYU Press\, 2019)\, The Queer Games Avant-Garde: How LGBTQ Game Makers Are Reimagining the Medium of Video Games (Duke University Press\, 2020)\, Sex Dolls at Sea: Imagined Histories of Sexual Technologies (MIT Press\, 2022)\, and How to Queer the World: Radical Worldbuilding through Video Games (NYU Press\, 2025). They have also co-edited two volumes\, Queer Game Studies (University of Minnesota Press\, 2017) and Real Life in Real Time: Live Streaming Culture (MIT Press\, 2023). In 2021\, they received the Stonewall Book Award for Non-Fiction from the American Library Association. In 2022\, they received the Anne Friedberg Innovative Scholarship Award from the Society of Cinema and Media Studies. They are also the recipient of a 2023-2025 Dangers & Opportunities grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.\n\nRegistration: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/bo-ruberg-guest-lecture-tickets-1248647411019?aff=oddtdtcreator
URL:https://digitaldemocracies.org/calendar/bo-ruberg/
LOCATION:British Columbia
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20250319T123000
DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20250319T133000
DTSTAMP:20260403T115909
CREATED:20241212T212057Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241212T212356Z
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SUMMARY:Digital Democracies Institute Speaker Series - Reem Hilu
DESCRIPTION:You are invited to join the third session of the Digital Democracies Speaker Spring Speaker Series\, featuring Reem Hilu (Washington University in St.Luis). \nThe Intimate Life of Computers: A Feminist Perspective on the History of Home Computing \nThe Intimate Life of Computers offers a feminist intervention in the history of personal computing by discussing the influence of women’s culture and feminist critique on the development of these technologies as they were taken up in US homes in the 1980s. As this talk will discuss\, although women were often not involved in the production nor even the primary intended audience for most applications of 1980s computing and gaming\, in order to adapt these media to the home\, hardware and software producers had to contend with middle-class domestic culture\, feminist critique\, and their perceptions of how women would respond to computing.  Computer applications such as playful therapeutic relationship software\, adult sex-themed computer games\, and talking dolls and robots powered by microprocessors were examples of the efforts made to integrate computers into the most intimate aspects of family life. The talk argues that\, as a result of the encounter with domestic culture\, personal computing came to be thought of as an intimate and interpersonal medium\, one that could shape and intervene in companionate relationships. \nReem Hilu is assistant professor of Film and Media Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research focuses on the history of computers and games as media of relationality and considers the role of gender\, sexuality\, and intimacy in shaping these histories. Her work in feminist media histories of computing and gaming has appeared in journals including Camera Obscura\, Feminist Media Histories\, and The Velvet Light Trap. \nDate: March 19\, 12.30 – 1.30pm PST \nVenue: Digital Democracies Institute\, TASC2\, room 7460\, SFU Burnaby campus. \nContact us to access the Zoom link.
URL:https://digitaldemocracies.org/calendar/digital-democracies-institute-speaker-series-reem-hilu/
LOCATION:British Columbia
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20250430T123000
DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20250430T133000
DTSTAMP:20260403T115909
CREATED:20250422T175219Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250422T175219Z
UID:6108-1746016200-1746019800@digitaldemocracies.org
SUMMARY:DDI Speaker Series: Liz Barry\, Metagov
DESCRIPTION:Joining us at the Digital Democracies Lab for the next Speaker Series session is Liz Barry from Metagov. \nLiz Barry is the Executive Director of Metagov. Before joining Metagov\, she served as Head of Partnerships at The Computational Democracy Project\, the 501(c)3 organization she established with the creators of the Polis technology to steward its open source code and methods. Liz works with facilitators\, social movements\, civil society organizations\, journalists\, indigenous nations\, democratic governments both young and old\, and peacebuilders to implement “listening at scale.” The collaboration began when her presence at Taiwan’s 2014 Sunflower Revolution and subsequent relationship with g0v led to her writing up the first coverage of vTaiwan in the west\, in the 2016 piece for Civicist titled “vTaiwan: Public Participation Methods on the Cyberpunk Frontier of Democracy\,” now republished by Taiwan’s government.\nMetagov is a community of research and practice gathered around the mission to cultivate tools\, practices\, and communities that enable self-governance in the digital age. \nIf you’d like to attend\, please send us an email at ddi_comms@sfu.ca\, and we’ll share the attendee details with you.
URL:https://digitaldemocracies.org/calendar/ddi-speaker-series-liz-barry-metagov/
LOCATION:Online
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20250516T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20250517T200000
DTSTAMP:20260403T115909
CREATED:20250430T200459Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250430T215709Z
UID:6111-1747418400-1747512000@digitaldemocracies.org
SUMMARY:Theatre Performance: (Machine) Learning to be
DESCRIPTION:From an international collaboration spanning 9 universities\, 50+ researchers\, and 15 artists\, comes a multimedia performance experience that engages with Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems and their impacts. (Machine) Learning To Be explores the many faces of AI\, its dangers\, and possibilities for our communities. Engage with the performance on May 16th and 17th at Progress Lab 1422 and online\, as you take part in a conversation around the possibilities and impacts of AI on the human body and society. (Machine) Learning To Be uses a hybrid performance model\, which means audiences can join in both online and in-person.  \nThe Vancouver performances (May 16-17) are co-produced by the Data Fluencies Theatre Project and Theatre Conspiracy and developed with support from the Data Fluencies Project through the Digital Democracies Institute at Simon Fraser University. The performance had a developmental workshop with public sharing at Brown University (August 2024)\, produced in collaboration with Brown Arts Institute as part of the inaugural Brown Arts IGNITE Series. \nThe live online performance is powered by CultureHub Broadcaster.  \nFor free tickets to the online performance\, please register here: https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/ticketing/machine-learning-to-be-online-experience.   \nDates & Shows: \nMay 16\, Friday | 6 PM  \nMay 16\, Friday | 8 PM  \nMay 17\, Saturday | 8 PM \n  \nDuration: 1 Hour \n  \nTickets \nSpecial Pricing: Pay What You Can \n  \nVenue: Progress Lab 1422 & online
URL:https://digitaldemocracies.org/calendar/theatre-performance-machine-learning-to-be/
LOCATION:Progress Lab 1422\, 1422 William St\, Vancouver\, British Columbia\, V5L 2P7\, Canada
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20250529T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20250719T170000
DTSTAMP:20260403T115909
CREATED:20250512T232533Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250512T232533Z
UID:6128-1748520000-1752944400@digitaldemocracies.org
SUMMARY:Data Fluencies: Tributaries
DESCRIPTION:Featuring artists Lai Yi Ohlsen\, Lani Asunción\, Jazsalyn\, Kristoffer Ørum\, Caroline Sinders\, and Roopa Vasudevan\, with experimental research by the Night School for Data Fluencies\, DATA/FFECT\, hannah holtzclaw\, and Data Fluencies Pedagogies. \n  \nThe second of three thematically connected shows taking place across North America this spring and summer\, this exhibition at Or Gallery investigates art’s potential for reimagining our often narrow understandings of data and machine learning and advocating for the digital futures we want. Using the river tributary as a conceptual starting point\, the exhibition invites you to explore how our current understandings of data and technology can become a site for broader\, community-centred discussions beyond the academy.  \n  \nData Fluencies: Tributaries features the diverse work of six contemporary artists\, alongside experimental research supported by the Data Fluencies Project\, based out of the Digital Democracies Institute at Simon Fraser University. Together\, the artists and researchers featured here offer us ways to (re)consider our relationships with the data that surrounds and drives our everyday lives—and perhaps find new routes to agency once we are able to do so. \n  \nThe Data Fluencies exhibitions are organized by Roopa Vasudevan\, a co-PI on the Data Fluencies Project. Visual identity by PROPS SUPPLY. \n  \nDates & Shows: May 29 – July 19  \nOpen hours Wednesday – Saturday\, 12–5 PM \nOpening Reception: 29 May\, 5 – 8 PM  \nPublic Curatorial Tour: 31 May\, 2 PM \nVenue: Or Gallery\, 236 Pender St East\, Vancouver\, BC
URL:https://digitaldemocracies.org/calendar/data-fluencies-tributaries/
LOCATION:Or Gallery\, 236 E Pender St\, Vancouver\, British Columbia\, V6A 1T7\, Canada
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20250919T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20250919T180000
DTSTAMP:20260403T115909
CREATED:20250825T194552Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250825T194552Z
UID:6140-1758297600-1758304800@digitaldemocracies.org
SUMMARY:Author Meets Critics: Dr. Susan Erikson's Book Launch
DESCRIPTION:Join in for an electric conversation with Dr. Susan Erikson\, an SFU Distinguished Professor\, who studies highly complex political economies that shape human health. Her new book\, Investable! When Pandemic Risk meets Speculative Finance – A Cautionary Tale (MIT Press\, 2025)\, which she traveled over 420\,000 research kilometres to write\, is about the financialization of global health and capitalist speculation repurposed as save-the-world innovation. \nDr. Erikson will be in conversation with Anke Kessler and Iveoma Udevi-Aruevoru in an open session about her work\, research\, and the story behind Investable! The book will be available to buy at the venue courtesy of Cross and Crows. \nRefreshments and snacks will be served at this downtown venue. \nThis event is hosted with the support of the Digital Democracies Institute\, the School of International Studies\, and the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University. \n  \nAbout Investable! \nIn a world increasingly defined by crisis\, bankers behind the scenes turn catastrophes into financial securities that can be bought and sold. Offering new insights into how the excesses of capitalism shape emergency preparedness\, Investable! is an ethnography of the World Bank bonds designed to solve health funding shortfalls by getting international investors to gamble on future crises. Erikson\, who traveled over 420\,000 kilometres conducting research for the book\, takes readers from West African roads to Wall Street to Boston data modeling firms to tell the stories of the people\, the special interests\, and the logics of pandemic bonds. Written for a smart general audience concerned about capitalism’s effect on human health\, Investable! will appeal to people working in global development\, health care and data modeling\, international affairs\, and anyone who wants to better understand how the worlds of high finance shape how we care for one another.
URL:https://digitaldemocracies.org/calendar/author-meets-critics-dr-susan-eriksons-book-launch/
LOCATION:The Teck Gallery\, SFU Harbour Centre\, 515 W Hastings St\, Vancouver\, British Columbia\, V6B 1A1\, Canada
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