Topics in African-American Studies (380-0-20)

Topic

What's Tech Got to Do with It?: Race and Resistanc

Instructors

Casidy Brianna Campbell

Meeting Info

Kresge Centennial Hall 4-410: Tues, Thurs 12:30PM - 1:50PM

Overview of class

Discussions of race in the digital humanities are often approached through a focus on the digital divide. This course will explore the study of race and technology beyond that introductory narrative. Instead, students will understand how the logics and infrastructure of computer technologies perpetuates racial inequalities in the day to day lives of people of color. Using the methods of queer theory, feminist theory and black studies, a central focus will be interrogating the consequences and affordances of technoculture, and more importantly, the cultural, and epistemological contributions to media and information technology by black and other communities of color. The syllabus is organized by theme and examines foundational texts starting in the 1990s up until our contemporary moment.

Learning Objectives

- Describe technology as a structure of power that not only shapes social relations and ideologies but also impacts the lived conditions of everyday people
- Identify fundamental concepts and conversations that are central to critical race and digital studies
- Evaluate ideas from a scholarly position informed by the methods and theories of digital studies, black studies and gender studies

Class Materials (Required)

Laptop