In Friday, November 9th 2018, at Loyola’s downtown campus near the Water Tower, the we held our annual symposium around the theme “From the Margins,” featuring topics related to women, people of color, and other peoples disenfranchised by and through technology.
At this one-day symposium, Catherine D’Ignazio from Emerson College gave the keynote address. D’Iganzio’s research explores ways in which data and technology can contribute to community empowerment and social justice. In her talk, focused on “data feminism.”
Susan Fowler Rigetti, who exposed allegations of sexual harassment at Uber, gave a talk about the sexism in Silicon Valley. The viral blog post, in which she revealed the culture of sexism at tech companies, led to the ouster of Uber’s CEO. For her efforts, along with many other “silence breakers,” she was named TimePerson of the Year.
Other invited speakers included Melissa Zimdars from Merrimack College and André Brock from Georgia Tech. Zimdars is an expert on fake news and addressed the moral responsibility of tech companies in combatting fake news. Brock, whose groundbreaking research on “black Twitter” made him one of the leading voices on race and digital culture, completed the quartet of invited speakers.
In addition to these four talks, the event also featured three panels in which academics from around the country presented original research papers related to the theme of the symposium. The panels, moderated by faculty of Loyola’s School of Communication, covered a wide variety of topics, ranging from algorithmic ethics to toxicity in gaming.
Presenters for the symposium included: Mathias Klang, Fordham, Nora Madison, Chestnut Hill, Teri Finneman, University of Kansas, Joy Jenkins, Reuters Institute, Ryan J. Thomas, Missouri, Iris Bull, Javon Goard, Tristan Gohring, & Lucas Kempe-Cook, Indiana, Ben Medeiros, Newman, Brian Collins, Jose Marichal, Richard Neve, California Lutheran, Zachary J. McDowell, Illinois Chicago, Robin D. Burke, DePaul & Victoria I. Burke, Ryerson, Stephenson Waters, Florida, Jennifer Rosales, Georgetown, Melissa Brough, Cal State Northridge, and Ioana Literat, Columbia.
A special issue of The Journal for Media Ethics dedicated to the symposium will appear in the Summer of 2020.
Teaches data visualization and civic media at Emerson College and is a pioneering voice in feminist tech
Engineer and former Uber developer, who was formerly Time Magazine’s person of Year for breaking the silence on sexual harassment in the workplace
Helped pioneer OpenSources.co, a project that navigates fake and otherwise misleading “news” websites.
From University of Michigan, who’s expertise includes African American Cyberculture.