Catalog Description: In this course, we will study major tech industry controversies and heavily criticized tech products, policies, and effects, including technologies used at the U.S.-Mexico border, social media platforms’ spread of disinformation and fake news, racial bias in algorithms, and internet trolling and harassment. We will also examine tech companies’ long-running tendency to exclude women and non-Asian minorities, and how tech workers have occasionally come under fire for the industry’s harms. Students will be required to brainstorm and design their own interventions into the workings of the tech sector to make it more inclusive, equitable, and diverse.
Units: 4
Formats:
Summer: 7.5 hours of lecture and 2.5 hours of discussion per week
Summer: 4.5 hours of lecture and 1.5 hours of discussion per week
Summer: 6.0 hours of lecture and 2.0 hours of discussion per week
Spring: 3.0 hours of lecture and 1.0 hours of discussion per week
Fall: 3.0 hours of lecture and 1.0 hours of discussion per week
Grading basis: letter
Final exam status: Alternative method of final assessment
Class Schedule (Summer 2023):
Matthew August Berry, PhD