Big data and digital methods, such as changes in social media privacy laws and advances in mapping and network analysis, are changing financial markets, political campaigning, and higher education while becoming commonplace in our lives. Our daily existence is increasingly structured by code and data, from the algorithms that time our traffic lights to those that filter our search criteria and record our thoughts and ideas.
This course explores the possibilities, limitations, and implications of using digital tools and methods to understand the issues that affect our everyday lives. We will critically collect, analyze, portray, and use data, in order to answer the following questions: What does big data reveal to us about the world? What does it hide? How do American policies and values influence the global production of the Internet, social media, algorithms, and data?
Students learn a range of data visualization tools to apply a critical lens for understanding and evaluating what technology can and cannot bring to the study of American life, and will share that knowledge publicly as a project of public humanities. Topics such as gender, race, sexuality, class, privacy, war, and governance will be highlighted through in-class conversations and research projects.
Here are the 2016 & 2017 class hashtags!
#BlackLivesMatter
#OscarsSoWhite
#warondrugs
#noDAPL
#woke
#blacklivesmatter
#lgbtrights
#StandwithPP
#transgender
#energy
#climatechange
#standingrock
#keystoneXL
#muslimban
#ISIS
#Syria
#alternativefacts
#fakenews
#thisisnotnormal
#MakeAmericaGreatAgain
#2a
#nobannowall
#islamophobia
#ObamaCare
#WhyIMarch
#transgender
#marriageeqaulity
#standwithPP
#likeagirl
#ISIS
#Syria
#BringBackOurGirls
#FeeltheBern
#99percent
#TrumpTrain
#MakeAmericaGreatAgain
#sealevel
#climatechange
#refugeeswelcome
#privacy
#bitcoin
#Anonymous
#surveillance