This schedule is likely to change – always check the week before readings are due. Follow the links and read or watch assigned material before class unless otherwise stated.
Because we only meet once a week, there is a fairly large amount of reading for each class. You will not be able to do all of it the evening before. Please plan accordingly!
RAE= Race After the Internet
Week 1: September 2 2015
Introductions and explorations
Confidential questionnaire: due Friday September 4
Wordpress and Twitter account setup: due Friday September 4
If you join the class late, both these assignments will be due the Friday of the week when you attend your first class.
Unit 1 Race, Gender, Power in Digital Histories and Presents
Week 2: September 9 2015
Digital Media’s Queer and Feminist Histories
Jacob Gaboury, A Queer History of Computing
Sadie Plant, from Zeroes and Ones
Judith Jack Halberstam, “Automating Gender: Postmodern Computing in the Age of the Intelligent Machine“
Claire L. Evans, “We Are the Future Cunt: CyberFeminism in the 90s”
Optional recommended reading: Alan Turing, “Computing Machinery and Intelligence“; Tully Barnett, “Monstrous Agents: Cyberfeminist Media and Activism”
Presenters: Jennifer, Dan
Bloggers: Daphne, Jennifer, Jaclyn, Guy, Julie
Livetweeter(s): Guy
Week 3: September 16 2015
Race, Labor and the Infrastructures of the Digital
Lisa Nakamura, “Economies of Digital Production in East Asia: iPhone Girl and the Transnational Circuits of Cool“; “Indigenous Circuits and the Racialization of Early Electronics Manufacture”
Anna Everett, “Have We Become Postracial Yet? Race and Media Technologies in the Age of President Obama” (RAE)
Christian Sandvig, “Connection at Ewiiaapaayp Mountain: Indigenous Internet Infrastructure” (RAE)
Optional recommended reading: Lisa Nakamura and Peter Chow-White, “Introduction – Race and Digital Technology (RAE);
Presenters: Ali and Nancy
Bloggers: Liv, Jennifer, Edna, Nancy, Britney, Julie, Julianne
Livetweeter(s): Daniel
Week 4: September 23 2015
Code and Culture: Intersectional Operating Systems
Tara McPherson, “U.S. Operating Systems at Midcentury: The Intertwining of Race and UNIX” (RAE)
Wendy Hui Kyung Chun, “Race and/as Technology, or, How to Do Things to Race” (RAE)
Kara Keeling, “Queer OS”
Zach Blas and micha cardeñas, “Imaginary Computational Systems: Queer Technologies and Transreal Aesthetics”
Optional recommended reading: HASTAC discussion of Queer and Feminist New Media Spaces (2010)
Presenters: Britney and Daphne
Bloggers: Daniel, Arrabi, Ally, Michal, Julie
Livetweeter(s): Nancy
Mini-project 1: Technocultural Analysis. Due Monday September 28.
Unit 2: Social Media and Social Justice
Week 5: September 30 2015
Lulz, Trolls, and the Ugly Histories of Social Media
Whitney Phillips, This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Introduction and chapters two, six, seven, eight, and nine.
Content note: this is a book about online trolls who use intense racist, sexist, and violent language and images; Phillips discusses her approach to reproducing that material in the Introduction.
Optional recommended reading: the rest of the book.
Presenters: Riley and Kayla
Bloggers: Liv, Guy, Julie, Edna
Livetweeter(s): Michal
Friday October 2 and Saturday October 3: Transformative Digital Humanities Conference and THATCamp, featuring keynote lecture from Lisa Nakamura. Volunteer for extra credit and the gratitude of your instructor and conference organizer!
Week 6: October 7 2015
Cultures and Politics of Digital Sharing
Lisa Nakamura,‘I WILL DO EVERYthing That Am Asked’: Scambaiting, Digital Show-Space, and the Racial Violence of Social Media” (Content note: images and discussion of racial degradation).
Moya Z. Bailey, #transform(ing)DH Writing and Research: An Autoethnography of Digital Humanities and Feminist Ethics
Alicia Garza, “A Herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement”
Alex Cho, “Queer Reverb: Tumblr, Affect, Time”
Optional recommended reading: Amanda Phillips, Five Things Academics Can Learn about how the Rowdy Social Justice Blogosphere Treats Fucknecks
Presenters: Julie and Jaclyn
Bloggers: Jennifer, Jaclyn, Nancy, Ally, Britney, Daniel, Julie
Livetweeter(s): Edna, Nancy
Week 7: October 14 2015
Femininity and Capital in Social Media Culture
Amy Odell, “How Pinterest is Killing Feminism”
Stephanie Chang, “In the Eye of the Beholder: Asian American YouTube Beauty Bloggers”
Minh-Ha T. Pham, “”I click and post and breathe, waiting for others to see what I see”: On #FeministSelfies, Outfit Photos, and Networked Vanity”
Optional recommended reading: Alice Marwick, “Gender, Sexuality, and Social Media“; micha cardeñas, “Blah, Blah, Blah: Ke$ha Feminism?“; Minh-Ha T. Pham, “Blog Ambition: Fashion, Feelings, and the Political Economy of the Digital Raced Body”
Presenter: Florence Rozario (TA: will be leading first half of class)
Bloggers: Jaclyn, Jennifer, Liv, Julie, Britney, Nancy,
Livetweeter(s): Julie
Mini-Project: Storify archive. Due Monday October 19.
Unit 3: Transformative Works: Fandom and Remix
Week 8: October 21 2015
Queer and Feminist Fan Cultures
Joanna Russ, “Pornography By Women For Women, With Love”
Francesca Coppa, “Women, Star Trek, and the Early History of Fannish Vidding’ and “An Editing Room of One’s Own (first essay in PDF compilation)
Alexis Lothian, Kristina Busse, and Robin Reid, “Yearning Void and Infinite Potential: Online Fan Culture as Queer Female Space”
Julie Levin Russo, “Hera Has Six Mommies: A Transmedia Love Story”
Optional recommended reading: Alexis Lothian, “Living in a Den of Thieves: Fan Video and Digital Challenges to Ownership” and “A Different Kind of Love Song: Vidding Fandom’s Undercommons”
Presenters: Guy and Edna
Bloggers: Jaclyn, Edna, Julie, Nancy, Ally, Liv
Livetweeter(s): Jaclyn
Week 9: October 28 2015
Critical Remix in Fandom and Beyond
Jonathan McIntosh, “A History of Subversive Remix Video Before YouTube”
Sumana Harihareswara (brainwane), “Pipeline” (watch video, which you may have to download, and read notes and comments) plus “Vids I Learned From”
Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid, talk at Google on book Sound Unbound.
Kimberley Christen, “Gone Digital: Aboriginal Remix and the Cultural Commons”
Optional recommended reading: Elisa Kreisinger, “Queer Video Remix and LGBTQ Online Communities”
Presenters: Michal and Ally
Bloggers: Edna, Liv, Julie, Britney
Livetweeter(s): Arrabi
Week 10: November 4 2015
In-class video editing workshop. Prepare video source before class as instructed.
Livetweeter(s): Britney
Mini-Project: Remix video/storyboard. Due Monday November 9.
Unit 4: Transformative Play
Week 11: November 11 2015
Anna Anthropy, Rise of the Videogame Zinesters: How Freaks, Normals, Amateurs, Artists, Dreamers, Drop-outs, Queers, Housewives, and People Like You Are Taking Back an Art Form.
Optional recommended reading: TBD
Presenters: Arrabi and Julianne
Bloggers: Jaclyn, Nancy, Edna, Britney
Livetweeter(s): Ally Fisher
Week 12: November 18 2015
Brendan Keogh, “Just Making Things and Being Alive About It: The Queer Games Scene”
Laura Hudson, “Twine, the Videogame Technology For All”
Play games: Redshift and Portalmetal by micha cardeñas; Depression Quest by Zoe Quinn; howling dogs by porpentine; The Hunt for the Gay Planet by Anna Anthropy
In-class Twine workshop
Bloggers: Daniel, Guy, Jennifer
Livetweeter(s): Cordell
Mini-project: Twine game. Due Monday November 23.
Week 13: NO CLASS (Thanksgiving)
Play and comment on MIT class’s Twine games
Email me a statement of intentions about your final project: which of the mini-projects are you going to develop, and how are you going to develop it?
Week 14: December 2.
Final project workshop
Week 15: December 9.
Class project showcase (at Women’s Studies Undergraduate Research Celebration)
Livetweeter(s): Anne
FINAL PROJECT DUE: December 11