Race in the Digital

How do we perceive race online? Have digital spaces opened paths for new or different circulations of racisms? Working from a Black Studies approach, we shall investigate how race and racisms have persisted, transformed, and become imbedded in the digital technologies and virtual spaces of our contemporary era. Topics of exploration might include: social media, data-tracking, digital blackface, algorithmic bias, and design justice in tech. As this course centrally deals with questions of digital space and place, we will regularly situate instruction, learning, and community-making through digital tools and technologies. We may read from texts such as Ruha Benjamin’s Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code. (BLST 0101 or equivalent coursework is strongly recommended.)