Course Schedule and Preliminary Syllabus (subject to change)
Big Data: What possibilities and problems reside in big data?
August 28
- Course Introduction
September 4
- Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, “Introduction” and “3. Data Reimagined” from Everybody Lies, HarperCollins, 2017
September 11 – No Class
September 18 – No Class
September 25
- Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Kenneth Cukier, “5. Datafication” and “8. Risks” from Big Data, Mariner Books, 2013
October 2
- Siva Vaidhyanathan, “Introduction” and “The Googlization of Memory: Information Overload, Filters, and the Fracturing of Knowledge” from The Googlization of Everything, U of California P, 2011
Algorithms: How is data used?
October 9
- Eli Pariser, “Introduction,” “4. The You Loop,” and “7. What You Want, Whether You Want It or Not” from The Filter Bubble, Penguin, 2011.
October 16
- Cathy O’Neil, “Introduction,” “7. Sweating Bullets,” and “10. The Targeted Citizen” from Weapons of Math Destruction, Broadway Books, 2016
October 23
- Nick Srnicek, “Platform Capitalism” from Platform Capitalism, Polity Press, 2017
- David Golumbia, “Bitcoin, Digital Culture, and Right-Wing Politics” from The Politics of Bitcoin: Software as Right-Wing Extremism, U of Minnesota P, 2016
Network: What are the material aspects of data?
October 30
- Lisa Parks and Nicole Starosielski, “Introduction,” from Signal Traffic: Critical Studies of Media Infrastructures, edited by Lisa Parks and Nicole Starosielski, U of Illinois P, 2015.
- Jennifer Holt and Patrick Vonderau, “‘Where the Internet Lives’: Data Centers as Cloud Infrastructure” from Signal Traffic: Critical Studies of Media Infrastructures, edited by Lisa Parks and Nicole Starosielski, U of Illinois P, 2015.
November 6
- Nicole Starosielski, “Fixed Flow: Undersea Cables as Media Infrastructure” from Signal Traffic: Critical Studies of Media Infrastructures, edited by Lisa Parks and Nicole Starosielski, U of Illinois P, 2015.
November 13
- Jonathan Sterne, “Compression: a Loose History” from Signal Traffic: Critical Studies of Media Infrastructures, edited by Lisa Parks and Nicole Starosielski, U of Illinois P, 2015.
November 20
- Catch-Up / Data Day
Terms of Service: How does data impact individuals and society?
November 27
- Cyrus Farivar, “Introduction,” “6. Why (Amazingly) E-mail Providers Won’t Give Up Messages Without a Warrant…,” and “9. Can Police Search Your Phone When You’re Arrested?” from Habeas Data: Piracy vs. the Rise of Surveillance Tech
December 4
- Virginia Eubanks, “Introduction,” “3. High-Tech Homelessness in the City of Angels,” and “4. The Allegheny Algorithm” from Automating Inequality, St. Martin’s Press, 2017
December 11
- Safiya Umoja Noble, “Introduction,” “2. Searching for Black Girls,” and “3. Searching for People and Communities” from Algorithms of Oppression, NYU Press, 2018
December 18 Final projects due
