This course uses a method I call "drilling down." We start with a contemporary work of research (what I call a "keystone text"), and then we read a selection of texts cited in the keystone texts.
For each of the six keystone texts, we will have a short writing assignment. These are due (uploaded to Canvas) before you come to class.
Every week, regardless of what type of texts we are reading, we will complete collaborative annotations in Canvas using Hypothesis software. These annotations are due the day before class, which gives me a chance to read your responses prior to our discussion.
Finally, each day a reading is assigned, you should bring a set of "talking points" to class. These are informal notes, but they should provide a kind of "agenda" for you during our class meetings - they can include questions, comments, quotations from the reading, or any other information that you would find helpful during lectures and discussions.
September 8
Reading: Darius Kazemi, "Run Your Own Social"
September 13
Reading: Keystone Text - Halcyon Lawrence, "Siri Disciplines"
Writing: Hypothesis annotations completed by Sunday (9/12); Short Writing Assignment #1 due by 6:00pm; Bring talking points to class
September 20
Reading: Drill Down Texts - Ramsey Nasser, "Command Lines: performing Identity and Embedding Bias" (video); Meryl Alper, Giving Voice Mobile Communication, Disability, and Inequality
Writing: Hypothesis annotations completed by Sunday; Bring talking points to class
September 27
Reading: Keystone Text - Graham and Hopkins, "AI for Social Justice: New Methodological Horizons in Technical Communication"
Writing: Hypothesis annotations completed by Sunday; Short Writing Assignment #2 due by 6:00pm; Bring talking points to class
October 4
Reading: Drill Down Texts - Ruha Benjamin, Race After Technology; Edenfield et. al., "Queering tactical technical communication: DIY HRT."
Writing: Hypothesis annotations completed by Sunday; Bring talking points to class
October 11
Reading: Keystone Text - Steele, Digital Black Feminism
Writing: Hypothesis annotations completed by Sunday; Short Writing Assignment #3 due by 6:00pm; Bring talking points to class
October 18
Reading: Drill Down Texts - Fouché "Say it loud, I’m Black and I’m proud: African Americans, American artifactual culture, and Black vernacular technological creativity; Baraka, A. "Technology and ethos"; Tonia Sutherland, "Archival Amnesty: In search of Black American transitional and restorative justice"
Writing: Hypothesis annotations completed by Sunday; Bring talking points to class
October 25
Reading: Keystone Text - Louise Amoore, Cloud Ethics, Introduction and Chapter 3; Foucault, "What is an Author?"
Writing: Hypothesis annotations completed by Sunday; Bring talking points to class
November 1
NO CLASS MEETING
November 3
Writing: Short Writing Assignment #4 due by 6:00pm
November 8
Reading: Keystone Text - Amaro, "As If"
Writing: Hypothesis annotations completed by Sunday; Bring talking points to class
November 10
Writing: Short Writing Assignment #5 due by 6:00pm
November 15
Reading: Drill Down Texts - Joy Buolamwini, "Aspire Mirror"; Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks, Chapter 6: The Negro and Psychopathology, pp109-162; Harney and Moten, The Undercommons, Chapter 3: Blackness and Governance, pp44-57
Writing: Hypothesis annotations completed by Sunday; Bring talking points to class
November 22
Reading: Legacy Russell, Glitch Feminism
Writing: No hypothesis annotations due; Bring talking points to class
November 29
No Class - Rutgers Observes Wednesday Schedule
Writing: Short Writing Assignment #6 due by 6:00pm
December 6
Optional Reading: Drill Down Texts - Cárdenas, “Trans of Color Poetics: Stitching Bodies, Concepts, and Algorithms"; Halberstam, "The Wild Beyond," Zach Blas (video)"Facial Weaponization Suite"
Writing: No hypothesis annotations due; Most of class will be devoted to workshopping final project and presentation
December 13
Final project due, presentations during class
