Feminist STS (Graduate)

ATCM 6389: Feminist Science & Technology Studies

Syllabus

A syllabus is nothing more than a plan. And, as the recent past has made abundantly clear, even the most well-developed plans change. Be sure to work from the version on Box for the most up-to-date information.

Course Information

Credit Hours: 3

Degree Plan: Prescribed elective.

Instructor Information

I am Dr. Kim Brillante Knight and my pronouns are she/her or they/them. I ask that students address me as Dr. Knight or Professor Knight in our interactions. In addition to serving as the instructor of this course, I am the Area Head of Critical Media Studies in ATEC.

I am also the project director for Fashioning Circuits, a Public Humanities project that engages wearable tech, domestic technologies, and computational craft. We meet weekly on Fridays and you are welcome to join us.

Ways to reach Dr. Knight

Dr. Knight’s Office Hour

  • Drop in Wednesdays, 4pm – 5:00pm, in office or via MS TEAMS
    • Quick questions or check-ins via one-on-one or group video/text chats.
    • For those using TEAMS, I’ll post when I’m “open” on our class TEAM and you can sign up by commenting.
  • By appointment Thursdays, 3pm – 4:00pm, on MS Teams.
    • Individual meetings to discuss your progress in the class, the program, and so forth.
    • Book a 30-minute appointment at
  • If these days & times do not work for you, please email me with a request for an appointment and a list of days and times you are available. This option generally requires a few weeks’ notice.

Dr. Knight’s Contact policies:

  • I generally respond to email and other messages during working hours (9am – 5pm-ish), Monday through Friday.
    • If I do not respond after 2-3 weekdays, check my email address and re-send it. If it was on Teams, make sure you sent me a direct chat, or if it was in a group chat or a channel, be sure to “@” me. Sometimes email falls through the cracks and I welcome the reminder.
  • Use official UTD email or MS Teams only. If you are asking me a question or telling me something on TEAMS, be sure to use the @ symbol and my name so that I receive a notification.

The Place Where We Meet

In-person discussion sessions are scheduled in Room ATC 2.901 of the Edith O’Donnell Arts and Technology Building at UT Dallas.

UT Dallas stands on land originally settled and occupied by the Caddo, Wichita and Comanche people. We recognize the history of UT Dallas begins with the forced removal of the indigenous people through the legacy of colonization.

The historic Caddo people were the leaders of the Caddo Nation, an organized confederacy of at least 25 smaller tribes. The Caddo Confederacy was active until the 1800s and numbered 250,000 at the height of their existence. The Hasinais were among the 25 tribes of the Caddo Confederacy. Tejas is the Spanish spelling of Tayshas, the Hasinai word for those who are friends. The Caddo Confederacy was commonly known to the Spanish as “The Tejas”. Texas is the English spelling of Tejas.

In 1855, the Caddo people were forcibly removed from the land they had originally settled and lived on for generations. They were relocated to the Brazos Indian Reservation, making room for the Peters colony. In 1859, they were again forcibly removed and relocated to the Washita River in Indian Territory in what is currently Caddo County, Oklahoma. The Caddo Nation of Oklahoma is a federally recognized tribe located in Binger, Oklahoma, which is made up of descendants of the historic Caddo tribes.

For more information about the indigenous peoples forced off this land by colonization, see https://multicultural.utdallas.edu/about-us/

Course Description

In this class we will treat the histories and products of science, media, and technology as our object of study. We will spend the first few weeks of the semester exploring foundational concepts that will frame our approach to study. Our approach will be intersectional, as defined by legal scholar Kimberle Crenshaw. It will account for privilege and the ways in which factors of social identity are socially constructed. And our approach will seek to understand how power and resistance operates within systems of oppression. For the remainder of the semester, we’ll explore the pasts, presents and futures of feminist STS, pairing theoretical readings with examples from art, media, and culture. The weeks are organized topically, with readings from (or addressing) different time frames on each week’s topic.

Course Goals

In this course, students will:

  • Become familiar with key concepts and scholarship in cultural studies of science, media, and technology
  • Identify, critique, and enter into academic conversations about media and technology, including through analytical papers that make appropriate use of academic conventions and secondary sources
  • Enter academic publics, including through presentations and networked forums

Required Texts and Materials

  • Various articles and chapters, available online via Box, UTD e-reserves, or the internet.

You will also need the following:

  • a UTD email account (that you check at least once per day during the week)
  • MS Teams on a desktop/laptop or a mobile device
  • A UTD Box account http://utdallas.app.box.com

Recommended Texts and Materials

  • Booth, Wayne, et. al. The Craft of Research. 4th edition. Available digitally via UTD library. 

Course Policies

Attendance

There are no required class meetings for this course. Instead, one of the course grades stems from “engagement,” including how you engage with course materials and class media, assignments, me, and one another. For more information, see the Engagement assignment sheet.

Accommodation

If you have a disability that requires accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendment Act -2008(ADAAA), please present your letter of accommodations from the Office of Student AccessAbility and meet with me as soon as possible so that I can support your success in an informed manner. If you would like to know more about the University of Texas at Dallas, Office of Student AccessAbility, please contact the office at 972-883-6104 or email: studentaccessability@utdallas.edu. Their office is located in the Student Service Building (SSB), suite 3.200. All discussions with them are confidential.

If you learn a bit differently but do not qualify for, or have the resources to seek, an accommodation, there are still ways I can support your success. Be sure to let me know so we can creatively approach your experience in this class.

Online Due Dates

Presentations are given during class meetings. Otherwise, work in this class is turned in online.  Annotations are due before class begins at 1pm. Other assignments should be turned in no later than 11:59pm on the date listed, unless otherwise noted. My preference is that you convert documents to .pdf before turning them in.  

Late work

Due dates have been set to help scaffold your coursework in a manageable way, and so that I can plan time to give you feedback. You should make an effort to turn in work on-time, in the format outlined on the assignment sheets. If you need an extension on something, you can use freebies (one per day) to turn in assignments late with no effect on the grade. If you are out of freebies and need an extension, talk to me about it. If you are communicating with me, I will be flexible if circumstances allow.

Academic Honesty

Academic dishonesty, i.e. plagiarism and other forms of cheating, will be reported to the Dean of Students. The Dean of Students office will investigate the claim, interview any students involved, and determine an outcome. Possible disciplinary action by the university may include failing the assignment, failing the course, expulsion, etc. If you have any questions regarding the proper use of outside sources or the distinction between plagiarism and sampling/remix/adaptation, I encourage you to meet with me.

Names and Pronouns

Many people might go by a name in daily life that is different from their legal name. In this class, we seek to refer to people by the names that they go by. Pronouns can be a way to affirm someone’s gender identity, but they can also be unrelated to a person’s identity. They are simply a public way in which people are referred to in place of their name (e.g. “he” or “she” or “they” or “ze” or something else). In this classroom, you are invited (if you want to) to share what pronouns you go by, and we seek to refer to people using the pronouns that they share. The pronouns someone indicates are not necessarily indicative of their gender identity.  

Online Identity

This class may ask students to participate in various forms of public writing. Writing in public has several advantages for student learning. It creates a closer analogue to offline environments and allows for the creation of writing that is designed to be shared with an external audience, instead of only an instructor. It also allows students to learn from each other. However, some students may have legitimate privacy concerns about participating in publicly accessible assignments. These students may choose to participate in public assignments under a pseudonym, or assumed name. If you wish to request this accommodation for any reason, please contact me immediately.

The Classroom Community and Your Well-being

Our many discussions and online assignments will require vigilance to ensure that we are always preserving an atmosphere of mutual respect in which everyone is welcome to learn. Disagreements may arise and consensus may not be possible. We can, however, respect each person’s right to express ideas and right to have the opportunity to learn. However, one’s “right to expression” does not include language or behavior that is harmful to others. Name calling, harassment, or menacing behavior will not be tolerated.

Classroom Conduct Requirements Related to Public Health Measures

UT Dallas will follow the public health and safety guidelines put forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), and local public health agencies that are in effect at that time during the semester to the extent allowed by state governance. Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s Executive Order GA-38 prohibits us from mandating vaccines and face coverings for UT Dallas employees, students, and members of the public on campus. However, we strongly encourage all Comets to get vaccinated and wear face coverings as recommended by the CDC.

A note from the instructor on masks: In my experience, the best learning happens when we can all be in a room together. To facilitate that, I will wear a mask for every single one of our class meetings. This is partly to protect myself, to protect my loved ones, and to protect you. I am an award-winning instructor and you deserve my full attention in teaching this class. If I feel unsafe, or am worried about you infecting one-another, you will not get the best classroom experience that I can offer you. 

So, I will wear an N95/KN95/KF94 mask, every class meeting, for the entire time. As a courtesy to your fellow students and me, I would appreciate it if you do the same. The only way we will stay safe and get to have an entire semester of in-person classes is if everyone is doing their part to battle this ongoing public health emergency.

Course Recordings

I may record meetings, or partial meetings, of this course, typically when we are going over assignment instructions and the like. Our typical class meetings to discuss readings or viewings will not be recorded as there exists a comparable asynchronous option for engagement.

Any recordings will be captioned and made available to all students registered for this class as they are intended to supplement the classroom experience. You are expected to follow appropriate University policies and maintain the security of passwords used to access recorded lectures. Unless the Office of Student AccessAbility has approved a student to record the instruction, you are expressly prohibited from recording any part of this course. Recordings may not be published, reproduced, or shared with those not in the class, or uploaded to other online environments except to implement an approved Office of Student AccessAbility accommodation. If the instructor or a UTD school/department/office plans any other uses for the recordings, consent of the students identifiable in the recordings is required prior to such use unless an exception is allowed by law. Failure to comply with these University requirements is a violation of the Student Code of Conduct.

University Policies

Please visit http://go.utdallas.edu/syllabus-policies for the University’s policies regarding all courses.

Course Requirements and Grading

Grading Scale

See the Assignment Instructions folder on Box for assignment-specific grading criteria.

EvaluationLetter GradeDescription
ExcellentA, A-Work that is thought-provoking, novel, and well-crafted. The work extends our thinking into new territory. The form and content enhance one another.
GoodB+, B, B-Work that is thought-provoking or novel, and well-crafted. The work extends our thinking, or wades into new territory. The form enhances the content.
FairC+, CWork that is well-crafted. The form connects to the content.
FailingFWork that is never turned in, off-topic, or out of alignment with the minimal requirements for the assignment or course.

Assignments

See the Assignment Instructions folder on Box for more details.

Engagement – TBD%

Preparation and presence, which include focus, asking questions, and specificity. Annotations and other preparatory homework are part of your engagement.

Presentation – 10%

An in-class presentation on a non-profit, community collective, activist, artist, scholar, or recovered historical figure. All topics will require instructor approval. Due throughout the semester.

Midterm – 20%

An annotated bibliography or speculative design project. More details in a few weeks.

Final – TBD%

A research paper that analyzes a text, object, or innovation in science, media, or technology fram an intersectional feminist perspective.

Grade Weighting

As you can see, only 30% of your course grade is currently fixed. You will distribute the remaining grading weight between weekly engagement and the final project, with the caveat that neither can be worth less than 10%. This is to help you decide how to invest your time or capitalize on your strengths in the class.

Freebies

Each student starts the semester with three “freebies.” Freebies can be used to skip part or all of a week’s engagement activities, or as grace days to turn in assignments late. If you miss an engagement activity or turn in one of these assignments late, I will automatically apply any remaining freebies unless you write to me to ask to save them.

Mid-term Assessment

You can expect a middle-of-the-term progress report that includes a preliminary grade in Engagement. Other assignments will be graded as soon as I can after they are initially turned in. Please note that my administrative responsibilities sometimes mean it can be several weeks before you receive feedback. Thank you in advance for your patience.

Schedule

How to read this schedule:

  • Weeks are Sunday to Saturday, with discussion meetings on Wednesdays
  • The “Prepare” section will help you get ready for the weekly annotations, discussion, and workshops. In other words, this is your homework to do before Wednesday at 1pm. 
  • Media and art listed under “Explore” connect theory to examples. We will draw on these heavily in discussion sessions or engagement papers, but you do not have to annotate them.
  • Annotations are due each week on Wednesdays at 1pm, regardless of whether you plan to attend discussion session or take the asynchronous option.
  • An asterisk (*) indicates readings or artworks that are on the ATEC Common Exam (ACE) list for PhD students

Unit 1: Introduction and Foundations

Week One: Aug 22 – 27 Introduction

  • Prepare
    • Pre-semester survey https://forms.gle/ovR1Rv6Fu8xiH2yu7
  • • Wednesday, Aug 24
    • 1pm – 3:45pm
      • Course Overview
      • Workshop: Annotating Documents
  • Saturday, Aug 27
    • Pre-semester survey if you did not do it earlier: https://forms.gle/ovR1Rv6Fu8xiH2yu7

Week Two: Aug 28 – Sept 3 Intersectionality

  • Prepare
    • Read and annotate
      • Crenshaw, Kimberlé Williams. “Demarginalizing the Intersections of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Anti-discrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics.” University of Chicago Legal Forum, vol. 1989, no. 1, 1989. http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol1989/iss1/8.
    • Recommended if you have never taken a class with me, or if it has been a while
      • DiYanni, Robert. “Reading Responsively, Reading Responsibly: An Approach to Critical Reading.” (Box)
  • Wednesday, Aug 31
    • 1pm Annotations of “Mapping the Margins” due
    • 1pm – 3:45pm Discussion Session Synchronous Meeting
  • Saturday, Sept 3
    • Engagement paper due (if you did not attend discussion session)

Dive Deeper:

  • Combahee River Collective. “Combahee River Collective Statement.”
  • Smith, Andrea.  “Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy: Rethinking Woman of Color Organizing.” Color of Violence. Ed. INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence,  Duke University Press, 2016.

Week Three: Sept 4 – 10 Privilege

  • Prepare
    • Read and annotate
      • McIntosh, Peggy. “The Invisible Knapsack” (Box)
      • Dyer, Richard. “The Matter of Whiteness.” In White. (Box)
  • Wednesday, Sept 7
    • 1pm Annotations of “Invisible Knapsack” and/or “The Matter of Whiteness” due
    • 1pm – 3:45pm Discussion Session Synchronous Meeting
  • Saturday, Sept 10
    • Engagement paper due (if you did not attend discussion session)

Dive Deeper:

  • DiAngelo, Robyn. “White Fragility.” International Journal of Critical Pedagogy. Vol. 3, no. 3, 2011, pp. 54-70.
  • Rothenberg, Paula, ed. White Privilege: Essential Readings on the Other Side of Racism
  • Harris, Cheryl I. “Whiteness as Property.” Harvard Law Review. Vol. 106, no. 8, 1993, pp. 1709 – 91.
  • hooks, bell. “Representing Whiteness in the Black Imagination.” Black Looks: Race and Representation. South End Press, 1992.
  • Lipsitz, George. The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit from Identity Politics. Twentieth Anniversary Edition. Temple U Press, 2018.
  • Baldwin, James. “On Being White…and Other Lies.” Essence. 1984.
  • Daniels, Jessie. “The Trouble with White Feminism: Whiteness, Digital Feminism, and the Intersectional Internet”

Week Four: Sept 11 – 17 Social Construction

Dive Deeper:

  • Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble.
  • Okizaki, Carrie Lynn H. “What are You? Hapa-Girl and Multiracial Identity.” University of Colorado Law Review. Vol. 71, no. 2, 2000.
  • Masuoka, Natalie. “Exclusive Categories: Historical Formation of Racial Classification in the United States” in Multiracial Identity and Racial Politics in the United States.
  • Ahmed, Sara. “A Phenomenology of Whiteness.” Feminist Theory. Vol. 8, no. 2, 2007, 149-68.
  • Puar, Jasbir K. The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability. Duke University Press, 2017.
  • Kafer, Alison. Feminist, Queer, Crip. Illinois U Press, 2013.
  • Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie. “Misfits: A Feminist Materialist Disability Concept.” Hypatia, vol. 26, no. 3, Summer 2011, pp. 591 – 609.

Week Five: Sept 18 – 24  Systemic Oppression

Dive Deeper:

  • Feagin, Joe. “White Racial Frame.” Excerpt of “Ch 1 Systemic Racism” from Systemic Racism
  • Smedley, Audrey and Brian Smedley. “Race as Biology is Fiction, Racism as a Social Problem is Real: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives on the Social Construction of Race.” In American Psychologist, vol 60, no 1, 2005, pp. 16 – 26.
  • Omi, Michael and Howard Winant. “Racial Formations.”
  • Pulido, Laura. “Flint, Environmental Racism, and Racial Capitalism.” Capitalism Nature Socialism. Vol. 27, no. 3, 2016, pp. 1 – 16.

Unit 2: Pasts, Presents, and Futures

Week Six: Sept 25 – Oct 1 Into the Future

  • Prepare
    • No annotations this week
  • Wednesday, Sept 28
    • 1pm – 3:45pm Discussion Session Synchronous Meeting
      • In-class screening: Okja (available on Netflix)
  • Saturday,
    • Engagement paper due (if you did not attend discussion session)

Week Seven: Oct 2 – 8 Ways of Knowing

  • Prepare
    • Read and annotate
      • Star, Susan Leigh. “Power, Technology, and the Phenomenology of Conventions: On Being Allergic to Onions.” The Sociological Review, vol. 28, no. 1, 1990, pps. 26 – 56.
      • McKittrick, Katherine. “Footnotes (Books and Papers Scattered Around the Floor).” In Dear Science and Other Stories. Duke UP, 2021,pps. 14 – 34.
  • Wednesday, Oct 5
    • 1pm Annotations of “Power, Technology” and “Footnotes” due
    • 1pm – 3:45pm Discussion Session Synchronous Meeting
      • Presentation:
  • Saturday, Oct 8
    • Engagement paper due (if you did not attend discussion session)

Dive Deeper:

  • *Haraway, Donna. “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective” Feminist Studies Vol.14, no. 3 (Autumn, 1988), pp. 575-599. (Box)
  • *Harding, Sarah. “Strong Objectivity and Socially Situated Knowledge” in Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? Thinking from Women’s Lives. Cornell UP, 1991,pp. 138 – 163.
  • Lennon, Myles. “Decolonizing energy: Black Lives Matter and technoscientific expertise amid solar transitions.” In Energy Research & Social Science, vol. 30, 2017, pp. 18-27.
  • Duarte, Marisa Elena, Morgan Vigil-Hayes, Sandra Littletree, Miranda and Belarde-Lewis. “‘Of course, data can never fully represent reality’: Assessing the Relationship between Indigenous Data and Indigenous Knowledge, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and Traditional Knowledge K.” In Human Biology 91.3 (July 2020): pp. 163 – 178.
  • TallBear, Kim. “Beyond the Life/Not Life Binary: A Feminist-Indigenous Reading of Cryopreservation, Interspecies Thinking, and the New Materialisms.” Cryopolitics, edited by Joanna Radin and Emma Kowal, MIT Press, 2017.
  • Ferguson, Kathy E. “Anarchist Printers and Presses: Material Circuits of Politics.” Political Theory, vol. 42, no. 4, 2014, pp. 391-414. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24571490.
  • Broussard, Meredith. Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World. MIT Press, 2019.
  • McKinney, Cait. Information Activism: A Queer History of Lesbian Media Technologies. Duke University Press, 2020.
  • Abraham, Itty. “The contradictory Spaces of Postcolonial Techno-Science.” Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 41, no. 3, 2006, pp. 210-17.
  • Philip, Kavita. “Producing Transnational Knowledge, Neoliberal Identities, and Technoscientific Practice in India.” Tactical Biopolitics: Art, Activism, and Technoscience, edited by Beatriz da Costa and Kavita Philip. The MIT Press, 2008, pp. 243-67.

Week Eight: Oct 9 – 15 Scientific Racism

  • Prepare
    • Read and annotate
      • Content warning: violence against Black women
      • Somerville, Siobhan. “Scientific Racism and the Emergence of the Homosexual Body.” Journal of the History of Sexuality. Vol. 5, no. 2, Oct 1994, pp. 243-66.
      • Campbell, Colleen. “Medical Violence, Obstetric Racism, and the Limits of Informed Consent for Black Women.” In Michigan Journal of Race and Law. Vol. 26, 2021, pp. 47 – 75. (Box)
    • Explore
      • Godley, Joanne. “A Herstory of Pain.” In The Massachusetts Review. Vol. 62, no. 1, 2021, pp. 33-42. (Box)
  • Wednesday, Oct 12
    • 1pm Annotations of “Medical Violence” and/or “Scientific Racism” due
    • 1pm – 3:45pm Discussion Session Synchronous Meeting
      • Presentation:
  • Saturday, Oct 15
    • Engagement paper due (if you did not attend discussion session)

Dive Deeper:

  • Hogarth, Rana. Medicalizing Blackness: Making Racial Difference in the Atlantic World, 1780 – 1840. UNC Press, 2017.
  • Scully, Pamela and Clifton Crais. “Race and Erasure: Sara Baartman and Hendrik Cesars in Cape Town and London.” Journal of British Studies. Vol. 4, no. 2, April 2008, pp. 310-23.
  • Brandt, Allan M. “Racism and Research: The Case of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study.” The Hastings Center Report. Vol. 8, no. 6, Dec. 1978, pp. 21-29. Word of caution on this one: lots of problematic language and assumptions, though ultimately an important read if you can stomach it.
  • Rusert, Britt. “Naturalizing Coercion: The Tuskegee Experiments and the Laboratory Life of the Plantation.” In Captivating Technology, ed. By Ruha Benjamin
  • Perreira, Christopher. “Consumed by Disease: Medical Archives, Latino Fictions, and Carceral Health Imaginaries.” In Captivating Technology, ed. By Ruha Benjamin
  • Nelson, Alondra. Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination
  • Banner, Olivia. Communicative Biocapitalism: The Voice of the Patient in Digital Health and the Health Humanities.
  • Murphy, Michelle. Seizing the Means of Reproduction: Entanglements of Feminism, Health, and Technoscience
  • Prasad, Amit. Imperial Technoscience: Transnational Histories of MRI in the United States, Britain, and India. The MIT Press, 2014.
  • TallBear, Kim. Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science. University of Minnesota Press, 2013.

Week Nine: Oct 16 – 22 Technological Labor

  • Prepare
    • Read and annotate
      • *Nakamura, Lisa. “Indigenous Circuits: Navajo Women and the Racialization of Early Electronic Manufacture.” In American Quarterly. Vol. 66, no. 4, Dec. 2014, pp. 919-41. (Box)
      • Atanasoski, Neda and Kalindi Vora. “Technoliberalism and Automation: Racial Imaginaries of a Postlabor World.” In Surrogate Humanity: Race, Robots, and the Politics of Technological Futures. Duke UP, 2019, pp. 27 – 53.
  • Wednesday, Oct 19
    • 1pm Annotations of “Indigenous Circuits” and/or “Technoliberalism and Automation” due
    • 1pm – 3:45pm Discussion Session Synchronous Meeting
      • Presentation:
  • Saturday, Oct 22
    • Engagement paper due (if you did not attend discussion session)

Dive Deeper:

  • Hossfeld, Karen. “Their Logic Against Them: Contradictions in Sex, Race, and Class in Silicon Valley.” Technicolor: Race, Technology, and Everyday Life. Eds. Alondra Nelson and Thuy Linh N. Tu.NYU Press, 2001.
  • Sandvig, Christian. “Connection at Ewiiaapaayp Mountain: Indigenous Internet Infrastructure.” Race After the Internet. Eds. Lisa Nakamura and Peter Chow White. Routledge, 2011.
  • Mamdani, Mahmood. “Settler Colonialism: Then and Now.” Critical Inquiry. Vol. 41, no. 3, 2015, online. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/680088?casa_token=UjYLig3wzQAAAAAA:syuBCPc_lNEe392lro3fVyLzXmznSszrZKz0K4n_im78ZlMxvHmpgCJ5l-8v0o0td27TsrfEHw
  • Kauanui, J. K?haulani and Patrick Wolfe, “Settler Colonialism Then and Now. A Conversation.” Politica & Societa. Vol. 2, 2012, pp. 235-258.
  • Snelgrove, Corey, Rita Dhamoon, Jeff Corntassel. “Unsettling settler colonialism: The discourse and politics of settlers, and solidarity with Indigenous nations.” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society. Vol. 3, no. 2, 2014, pp. 1-32. 
  • Morgensen, Scott Lauria. Spaces Between Us: Queer Settler Colonialism and Indigenous Decolonization. U of Minnesota Press, 2011.
  • Nguyen, Josef. “Digital Games about the Materiality of Digital Games.” Special Issue on “Green Computer and Video Games. Guest eds. Alenda Chang and John Parham. Ecozon@ 8.2 (Nov 2017): 18-38, https://doi.org/10.37536/ecozona.2017.8.2.1347
  • Puig de la Bellacasa, Maria. “Matters of Care in Technoscience: Assembling Neglected Things.” Social Studies of Science, vol. 41, no. 1, 2011, pp. 85-106.

Week Ten: Oct 23 – 29: Midterm

Week Eleven: Oct 30 – Nov 5 Data at the Border

Dive Deeper:

  • Cohen, Deborah. “At the Border of Sight: States, the Civil Contract, and Bracero Program Photos.” Liquid Borders: Migration as Resistance. Mabel Moraña, ed. Routledge, 2021. Ebook.
  • Mize, Ronald and Alicia Swords. Consuming Mexican Labor: From the Bracero Program to NAFTA. U of Toronto Press, 2010.
  • Coutin, Susan Bibler and Phyllis Pease Chock. “Your Friend the Illegal: Definition and Paradox in Newspaper Accounts of U.S. Immigration Reform.” Global Studies in Culture and Power. Vol. 2, no. 1, 1995, pp. 123-48.
  • De la Cruz-Férnandez, Paula A. Gendered Capitalism: Sewing Machines and Multinational Business in Spain and Mexico, 1850 – 1940.

Week Twelve: Nov 6 – 12 Technological Infrastructure

Dive Deeper:

  • The works of Shannon Mattern
  • Starosielski, Nicole. The Undersea Network. Duke UP, 2015.
  • Llamas-Rodriguez, Juan. “Tunnelling Media: Geoblocking and Online Border Resistance,” in Geoblocking and Global Video Culture
  • Parks, Lisa and Nicole Starosielski. “Introduction.” Signal Traffic: Critical Studies of Media Infrastructures. University of Illinois Press, 2015, pp. 1-30.

Week Thirteen: Nov 13 – 19  Creativity and Generativity

  • Prepare
    • Read and annotate
      • *Eglash, Ron. “Anti-racist Technoscience: A Generative Tradition.” In Captivating Technology: Race, Carceral Technoscience, and Liberatory Imagination in Everyday Life. Ed. Ruha Benjamin, Duke UP, 2019, pp. 227 – 251.
      • *Gaskins, Nettrice R. “Techno-Vernacular Creativity and Innovation across the African Diaspora and Global South.”In Captivating Technology: Race, Carceral Technoscience, and Liberatory Imagination in Everyday Life. Ed. Ruha Benjamin, Duke UP, 2019, pp. 252 – 274.
  • Wednesday, Nov 16
    • 1pm Annotations of “Anti-racist Technoscience” and/or “Techno-Vernacular Creativity” due
    • 1pm – 3:45pm Discussion Session Synchronous Meeting
      • Presentation:
  • Saturday, Nov 19
    • Engagement paper due (if you did not attend discussion session)

Dive Deeper:

  • Nguyen, Josef. The Digital is Kid Stuff: Making Creative Laborers for a Precarious Economy.

Fall Break: Nov 20 – 26

Week Fourteen: Nov 27 – Dec 3 Into the Future

  • Prepare
  • Wednesday, Nov 30
    • No annotations this week
    • 1pm – 3:45pm Discussion Session Synchronous Meeting
      • In-class screening: Janelle Monáe, Dirty Computer [Emotion Picture]
  • Saturday, Dec 3
    • Engagement paper due (if you did not attend discussion session)

Dive Deeper:

  • The works of Octavia E. Butler, Samuel R. Delaney, Ishmael Reed, N.K. Jemison, and other afro-futurist writers.
  • The works of Mary Shelley, James Tiptree Jr., Pat Cadigan, Margaret Atwood, Shelley Jackson, and other feminist SF writers.
  • Rivers Solomon’s novella The Deep, inspired by Clipping’s single “The Deep,” which also connects to Drexciya’s underwater mythology and Paul Gilroy’s The Black Atlantic.

Week Fifteen: Dec 4 – 10 Disparity Trap & Wrap Up

  • Prepare
    • Work on Final Paper
  • Wednesday, Dec 7
    • 1pm – 3:45pm Discussion Session Synchronous Meeting
      • Course wrap up
      • Play Disparity Trap
  • Sunday, Dec 11
    • Final Paper due