{"id":761944,"date":"2021-07-21T10:18:34","date_gmt":"2021-07-21T17:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/?p=761944"},"modified":"2021-07-21T10:18:37","modified_gmt":"2021-07-21T17:18:37","slug":"lecture-series-aims-to-help-spur-dialogue-around-race-and-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/blog\/lecture-series-aims-to-help-spur-dialogue-around-race-and-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"Lecture series aims to help spur dialogue around race and technology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A
Race and Technology: A Research Lecture Series features 14 distinguished scholars and domain experts from a diverse range of research areas and disciplines. From top left: Dr. Sareeta Amrute, Dr. Kim TallBear, Dr. Charlton McIlwain, Dr. Ruha Benjamin, Dr. Lisa Nakamura, Dr. Simone Browne, and Dr. Andr\u00e9 Brock. From bottom left: Dr. Sohini Ramachandran, Dr. C. Brandon Ogbunu, Dr. Kishonna L. Gray, Dr. Desmond Upton Patton, Merisa Heu-Weller, J.D., Dr. Denae Ford Robinson, and Dr. A. Nicki Washington.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In November, NYU media professor Charlton McIlwain (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> joined fellow scholars Safiya Noble, Ruha Benjamin, and Andr\u00e9 Brock for a virtual discussion on anti-Blackness and technology hosted by the University of California Santa Barbara. The conversation was an engaging one, and McIlwain distinctly recalls the last question of the event: what is your vision for the future in terms of race and technology?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years earlier, McIlwain, Noble, Brock, and others had helped move race and technology from a niche field into a more formalized, impactful area of study by bringing scholars in the area together with the founding of the Center for Critical Race and Digital Studies (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, a research and policy institute that investigates \u201chow race, ethnicity and identity shape and are shaped by the design, deployment and use of digital technology.\u201d Since its creation, the center had faced these questions of how race and technology affect one another and what creating a more equitable sociotechnical future will entail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat was a moment where we all started to think and articulate in broad strokes what needed to be and what we wanted to see happen in terms of centralizing race in the study of technology,\u201d McIlwain says of the UCSB panel. \u201cAnd much of it had to do with the expansion of a field that was connected in and through every part of research, [the] higher education landscape, both within the academy but also in private companies, in policy arenas, and so forth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly after the UCSB discussion, Microsoft Senior Principal Research Manager Nancy Baym<\/a>, who had attended the talk, reached out to McIlwain and others in the field. An expert in internet studies, she had long been interested in race and technology and believed there was immense value in engaging with this field not only individually but as an industry, and she wanted to help facilitate that engagement. With an organizing committee that included McIlwain and Baym, Microsoft Research launched Race and Technology: A Research Lecture Series<\/a> in May 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the other members of the committee\u2014Senior Principal Research Manager Hanna Wallach (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, Chief of Staff for the Microsoft CMO Chris Morris (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, Community Engagement Program Manager Eleanor Buxton (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, and Senior Manager Community Engagement and Partnerships Jessica Mastronardi (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>\u2014McIlwain and Baym identified leading scholars representing a breadth of topics at the intersection of race and technology. The result is a free and public series of 14 monthly lectures covering a variety of domains, such as labor, public health, genomics, digital media, gaming, and software and computer science. Baym describes the series\u2014which was designed to provide a foundational understanding to those new to the field and fresh insights to those with experience in the subject\u2014the \u201cbest introductory graduate seminar or senior level course you could have.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a field that just has so much to teach technology companies,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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