September 2021 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

ACM International Conference on Information Technology for Social Good (GoodIT 2022): First Call for Special Track Proposals
by Announce Announcements 25 Sep '21

25 Sep '21

*** First Call for Special Track Proposals *** ACM International Conference on Information Technology for Social Good (GoodIT 2022) 7–9 September, 2022, 5* St. Raphael Resort & Marina, Limassol, Cyprus https://cyprusconferences.org/goodit2022/ Scope ACM GoodIT focuses on the application of IT technologies to social good. Social good is typically defined as an action that provides some sort of benefit to the general public. In this case, Internet connection, education, and healthcare are all good examples of social goods. However, new media innovations and the explosion of online communities have added new meaning to the term. Social good is now about global citizens uniting to unlock the potential of individuals, technology, and collaboration to create positive societal impact. GoodIT topics include but not limited to: • IT for education • Data Science • Digital solutions for Cultural Heritage • Data sensing, processing, and persistency • Game, entertainment, and multimedia applications • Health and social care • IT for development • Privacy and trust issues and solutions • Sustainable cities and transportation • Smart governance and e-administration • IT for smart living • Technology addressing the digital divide • IT for automotive • Frugal solutions for IT • Ethical computing • Decentralized approaches to IT • Citizen science • Socially responsible IT solutions • Sustainable IT • Social informatics • Civic intelligence Special Tracks Proposals GoodIT 2022 will feature special tracks whose aim is to focus on a specific topic of interest related to the overall scope of the conference. We solicit proposals for special tracks to be held within the main conference and whose publications will be included in the conference proceedings. Tracks proposals can focus on any contemporary themes that highlight social good aspects in the design, implementation, deployment, securing, and evaluation of IT technologies. Special Track Proposal Format A special track proposal must contain the following information: • Title of the special track. • The names of the organizers (indicatively, two) with affiliations, contact information, and a single paragraph of a brief bio. • A short description of the scope and topics of the track (max 1/2 page) and a brief explanation of: (1) why the topic is timely and important; (2) why the topic is related to the conference’s main theme; (3) why the track may attract a significant number of submissions of good quality. • Indication if a journal special issue is associated with the track, possibly with information on the process of selecting papers. • The plan to disseminate the call for papers of the special track for achieving a reasonable number of paper submissions (a list of emailing lists will help). • A tentative Program Committee list. • A draft Call for Papers (max 1 page). Publication Papers submitted to each particular track have to satisfy the same criteria as for the main conference. They must be original works and must not have been previously published. They have to be peer-reviewed by the track's Program Committee (at least three reviews per submitted paper are required). The final version of papers must follow the formatting instructions of the main conference (https://cyprusconferences.org/goodit2022/index.php/authors/) At least one of the authors of all accepted papers must register and present the work at the conference; otherwise, the paper will not be published in the proceedings. All accepted and presented papers will be included in the conference proceedings published in the ACM Digital Library. The special track may provide an option for publishing extended versions of selected papers in a special issue of a journal. Special Track Proposal Submission Guidelines Special track proposals should be submitted as a single PDF file to the special track Chairs (see below) via email to: ombretta.gaggi(a)unipd.it, valentino.vranic(a)stuba.sk, and rysavy(a)fit.vut.cz. The subject of the e-mail must be: “GoodIT 2022 – special track proposal”. The special track chairs may ask proposers for supplying additional information during the review period. Important Dates • Special Track Proposal Submission Deadline: 13 December 2021 • Notification of Selection: 20 December 2021 Contact (Special Tracks Chairs) • Ombretta Gaggi (University of Padua, Italy) • Ondrej Rysavy (Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic) • Valentino Vranic (Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Slovakia)

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CFP Reminder for Failures of Care
by Alexis De Coning 24 Sep '21

24 Sep '21

Hi AoIR list, Please share our CFP reminder as the final date for submissions is coming up soon! Thank you and best regards, Alexis de Coning CFP - Failures of Care Edited Volume 150 word abstracts Due by September 30, 2021 Decision notification by October 30, 2021 “Care” is often framed in discourse as a laudatory goal and a set of individualized skills that each person should master. Care, however, is a complex concept and practice. Providing care for some communities can mean failing to care for others. And, failures of care may act as “features rather than bugs” in hierarchical systems. This edited volume approaches care as a relational phenomenon through a critical lens rooted in the scholars’ experiences and observations of failures of care in institutions, within their own data collection and analysis, while promoting their research, or interpersonally with other scholars. Researchers of online cultures and phenomena are at high risk of harassment and threats of physical, mental, and emotional harm. Crucially, the majority of online harassment is targeted toward women, women of color, gender non-conforming, and other marginalized scholars. Researcher safety is now a common topic for conferences, reports, and articles and yet, “guidelines” and “best practices” in this area are lacking and often leave those mired in difficult data or suffering harassment to (re)invent their own. Such failures of care also present challenges during data analysis itself, with researchers navigating traumatic and distressing content often in isolation, affecting the retention of marginalized scholars. These pressing concerns result in safety recommendations targeted toward individuals, without much regard to the role that institutions can and should play in researcher safety. Institutional failures to provide sufficient care to researchers who are harassed because of their scholarship has, in some cases, led to institutional silencing and punishment of researchers for drawing negative “public” attention. Failures of institutional care in this light pose potential breaches of researchers’ civil rights. Grappling with questions of morality, responsibility, and justice, we invite contributions for an edited volume which aims to engage with crucial conversations in feminist scholarship and other disciplines as to what care entails and what happens when it is appropriated, misaligned, and poorly practiced, if at all. In the midst of growing racism, misogyny, global health crisis, and the catastrophic failures of care we have witnessed, we are compelled to explore the ways that organizations and institutions can ensure care in our research, teaching, and collaborations. Topics can include but are not limited to: - institutional failures of care ( e.g. lack of response to experiences of harassment, lack of policy to protect researchers in the field, etc.) - working with distressing data - networked harassment / online abuse - relational and collegial failures of care (e.g. harassment from other academics, unhelpful advice or indifference from mentors, gatekeeping behaviors, etc.) - researcher safety (e.g. ethical standards for “safe” research focusing on subjects and leaving out researchers, etc.) - care and methodological challenges (e.g. ethical review board expectations around informed consent, gaining access to toxic or extremist communities, etc.) - self-care (e.g. as a rhetoric of neoliberalism, a genuine practice and coping mechanism, etc.) - researching extremist communities and phenomena (e.g. GamerGate, transphobia, right wing extremism, white supremacist extremism, anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theory groups, etc.) If interested, please fill out this Google form <https://forms.gle/CAU4B2Qgfbo97zEx7> with your information and a 150 word abstract describing the contribution. We are inviting contributions in the form of academic essays (4,000 to 5,000 words), personal essays (2,000 to 3,000 words), or works of poetry and/or art (please contact us to discuss the number of pieces). We especially encourage submissions from early career researchers, graduate students, international scholars, BIPOC scholars, women and non-binary researchers, and other marginalized scholars. Because we are submitting this as a book proposal, we do not yet have a definitive timeline for when contributions need to be submitted to us, but we are targeting Rutgers University Press and have garnered interest from a section editor. If there are any questions, please feel free to reach out to the volume editors -- Dr. Julia DeCook, Dr. Ashley Mattheis, and Alexis de Coning -- at failuresofcare(a)gmail.com.

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Assistant Professors in HCI, Human-Centered Data Science, and Health/Social Justice Informatics, UT Austin School of Information
by Lee, Min Kyung 24 Sep '21

24 Sep '21

The School of Information at UT Austin has multiple tenure-track positions available: - Assistant Professor in Human-Centered Data Science or Human-Computer Interaction - Assistant Professor in Health Informatics and/or Social Justice Informatics More information: https://www.ischool.utexas.edu/about/jobs Please spread the word and consider applying! —————————————————— Min Kyung Lee Assistant Professor School of Information, University of Texas at Austin http://minlee.net

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Job opening: Early career researcher in digital methods
by Richard Rogers 24 Sep '21

24 Sep '21

Dear all, We have an opening for an early career researcher who has completed an MA/MSc. Job advert is below. Kind regards Richard Rogers Media Studies University of Amsterdam Research Staff Member in Digital Methods Faculty of Humanities – Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis Closing date: 15 October 2021 Level of education: Master's degree Hours: 38 hours per week Salary indication: €2,700 tot €3,606 gross per month (based on 38 hours per week) Vacancy number: 21-757 Research at the Faculty of Humanities is carried out by six research schools under the aegis of the Amsterdam Institute for Humanities Research (AIHR). The Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (AIHR), one of six research schools of the Faculty of Humanities, has a vacant, early-stage research staff member position as part of the CLEOPATRA ITN: 'Cross-lingual Event-centric Open Analytics Research Academy', led by Prof. Richard Rogers. ASCA is home to more than 110 scholars and 120 PhD candidates and is a world-leading international research school in Cultural Analysis. ASCA members share a commitment to working in an interdisciplinary framework and to maintaining a close connection with contemporary cultural and political debates. What are you going to do The research staff member position is in digital methods with a focus on the cross-lingual study of media events. It is connected to the CLEOPATRA EU research project that aims to make sense of the massive digital coverage of events of global importance in Europe over the past decade. CLEOPATRA offers a unique interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral research and training programme, which explores how we can begin to analyse and understand the major events that influence and shape our lives and our societies. It facilitates advanced cross-lingual processing of textual and visual information related to key contemporary events at scale and develops innovative methods for efficient and intuitive user access to and interaction with multilingual information. Successful candidates will have a strong background in digital methods for media analysis (an outstanding MA or MSc degree in the corresponding discipline). Excellent proficiency in English is expected; knowledge of further European languages is an advantage. International experience during your studies or afterwards as well as good social and communication skills are helpful. Your tasks and responsibilities: • conduct research in coordination with the project leader at University of Amsterdam (UvA) in digital methods with a focus on the cross-lingual study of media events. The research will take place in the context of the CLEOPATRA project. • provide important input to the development of integrated cross-lingual data analytics platforms.; • actively participate in the training programme offered by the CLEOPATRA ITN; • engage with researchers at CLEOPATRA partner organisations across the EU; • conduct research visits and secondments according to the individual career development plan. What do we require of you To be eligible the applicant must satisfy the mobility requirements of Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions. According to these guidelines, at the time of recruitment, the potential candidate 'must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the recruiting beneficiary for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately before the recruitment date'. Compulsory national service, short stays such as holidays, and time spent as part of a procedure for obtaining refugee status under the Geneva Convention (1951) are not taken into account. Furthermore, according to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie rules, Early-Stage Researchers shall, at the time of recruitment by the host organisation, 'be in the first four years (full-time equivalent research experience) of their research careers and have not been awarded a doctoral degree'. Your experience and profile: • a relevant Master’s degree in the Humanities or Social Sciences, focusing on digital methods or new media and digital culture; • outstanding research qualities, manifested in strong transcripts and a high-quality Master’s thesis; • demonstrable experience with research software and working in data sprint environments; • demonstrable experience working with theoretical frameworks and a keen interest in new media and digital culture; • excellent written and spoken English; • eeen interest in interdisciplinary research methods and approaches; • ability and willingness to work in a team; • willingness to travel abroad for research stays, conferences and project expert workshops; • strong organizational skills. Our offer We offer a temporary full-time contract for the period of 16 months. Preferred starting date is 1 January 2022. The gross monthly salary based on 38 hours per week ranges from €2.700 up to a maximum of €3.606. This is exclusive 8% holiday allowance and 8,3% end-of-year bonus. The starting salary will be based on qualifications, expertise and relevant experience, in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities. About us The University of Amsterdam is the Netherlands' largest university, offering the widest range of academic programmes. At the UvA, 30,000 students, 6,000 staff members and 3,000 PhD candidates study and work in a diverse range of fields, connected by a culture of curiosity. Curious about our organisation and attractive fringe benefits such as a generous holiday arrangement and development opportunities? Here you can read more about working at the University of Amsterdam. The Faculty of Humanities provides education and conducts research with a strong international profile in a large number of disciplines in de field of language and culture. Located in the heart of Amsterdam, the faculty maintains close ties with many cultural institutes in the capital city. Research and teaching staff focus on interdisciplinary collaboration and are active in several teaching programmes. Job application The University of Amsterdam is an equal-opportunity employer. We prioritise diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for everyone. We value a spirit of enquiry and perseverance, provide the space to keep asking questions, and promote a culture of curiosity and creativity. Do you recognise yourself in the job profile? Then we look forward to receiving your application. You may apply online by using the link below. Applications, including a letter of motivation and CV, should be submitted in pdf. The response period closes on 15 October 2021. Only complete applications received within the response period will be considered. The interviews will be held in mid-November. Applications may be made here: https://www.uva.nl/en/content/vacancies/2021/09/21-757-research-staff-membe… CLEOPATRA project: http://cleopatra-project.eu Prof. Richard Rogers Media Studies University of Amsterdam digitalmethods.net r.a.rogers(a)uva.nl Out now: R. Rogers (2019), Doing Digital Methods, Los Angeles: Sage. Just out: R. Rogers and S. Niederer (eds.) (2020), The Politics of Social Media Manipulation, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

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Fwd: tenure track position in Black Media and Technology Studies
by Jeremy Hunsinger 24 Sep '21

24 Sep '21

Please share the following academic job announcement in your networks. With apologies for cross-posting. The Department of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University (Montreal, Canada) is hiring an Assistant Professor of Black Studies in Media and Technology (tenure-track). We welcome candidates working in Black Studies as it intersects with one or more of the following areas: media studies, digital culture and/or internet research, cultural studies, science and technology studies, music and sound studies, film studies, infrastructure studies, and gender and sexuality studies. We welcome research and teaching concentrations that could include but are not limited to: Black digital culture and counterpublics; cultural studies of the Black diaspora; Black diasporic expressive cultures; anti-colonial, decolonial, and postcolonial theory and methods; environmental humanities; media histories; feminist, queer and transgender studies; disability studies; and production studies. Black scholars, and scholars working with anti-oppressive research frameworks and methods, broadly conceived, are especially encouraged to apply. The successful candidate will teach courses at the undergraduate and graduate level, develop curriculum in their areas of expertise, supervise graduate students, and contribute to the intellectual life of the department and university. PhD in hand at the time of appointment is preferred. Appointment is expected to be at the rank of Assistant Professor, but appointment at a higher rank is possible under exceptional circumstances. The position start date is August 1, 2022. Complete applications should include a cover letter, curriculum vitae, contact information for three referees, evidence of teaching experience and effectiveness (for example: sample course syllabi and summaries of teaching evaluations), and two writing samples (20-30 pages). Full review of applications will begin on 27 October 2021. Applications will continue to be reviewed after that date until the position is filled. Interviews are expected to take place online in December 2021. Inquiries may be sent to the Chair of the search, Prof. Carrie Rentschler (carrie.rentschler(a)mcgill.ca) All materials must be submitted electronically via Workday, at the following link: https://mcgill.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/mcgill_careers/job/Arts- Building/Assistant-Professor-of-Black-Studies-in-Media-and-Technology_JR0000016020 Knowledge of French is an asset. English is the language of instruction at McGill. This position is part of a multi-year interdisciplinary initiative designed to strengthen and support research innovation and excellence in African, African diasporic, and Black Studies at McGill, while simultaneously addressing the under-representation of Black faculty in the tenure stream, as laid out in the University Action Plan to Address Anti-Black Racism 2020-2025. Our department and McGill University are located on the unceded territory of Tiohtià:ke, now known as Montréal; the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation are the traditional custodians of these lands and waters. To learn more about the Department of Art History and Communication Studies, please visit our website at: https://www.mcgill.ca/ahcs/. The full online posting of the job announcement in both English and French is available at the following link: https://www.mcgill.ca/ahcs/jobs The department is also hiring a tenure-track position in Contemporary Art. Information on that position can also be found at the link above. -- Jeremy Hunsinger Associate Professor Communication Studies Wilfrid Laurier University

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2022 IEEE International Conference on Evolving and Adaptive Intelligent Systems (IEEE EAIS 2022): Final Call for Special Sessions Proposals
by Announce Announcements 24 Sep '21

24 Sep '21

*** Final Call for Special Sessions Proposals *** 2022 IEEE International Conference on Evolving and Adaptive Intelligent Systems (IEEE EAIS 2022) May 25-27, 2022, Golden Bay Hotel 5*, Larnaca, Cyprus http://cyprusconferences.org/eais2022/ (Proceedings to be published by the IEEE Xplore Digital Library; Special Journal Issue with Evolving Systems, Springer) IEEE EAIS 2022 will provide a working and friendly atmosphere and will be a leading international forum focusing on the discussion of recent advances, the exchange of recent innovations and the outline of open important future challenges in the area of Evolving and Adaptive Intelligent Systems. Over the past decade, this area has emerged to play an important role on a broad international level in today's real-world applications, especially those ones with high complexity and dynamic changes. Its embedded modelling and learning methodologies are able to cope with real-time demands, changing operation conditions, varying environmental influences, human behaviours, knowledge expansion scenarios and drifts in online data streams. Conference Topics Basic Methodologies Evolving Soft Computing Techniques. Evolving Fuzzy Systems. Evolving Rule-Based Classifiers. Evolving Neuro-Fuzzy Systems. Adaptive Evolving Neural Networks. Online Genetic and Evolutionary Algorithms. Data Stream Mining. Incremental and Evolving Clustering. Adaptive Pattern Recognition. Incremental and Evolving ML Classifiers. Adaptive Statistical Techniques. Evolving Decision Systems. Big Data. Problems and Methodologies in Data Streams Stability, Robustness, Convergence in Evolving Systems. Online Feature Selection and Dimension Reduction. Online Active and Semi-supervised Learning. Online Complexity Reduction. Computational Aspects. Interpretability Issues. Incremental Adaptive Ensemble Methods. Online Bagging and Boosting. Self-monitoring Evolving Systems. Human-Machine Interaction Issues. Hybrid Modelling, Transfer Learning. Reservoir Computing. Applications of EAIS Time Series Prediction. Data Stream Mining and Adaptive Knowledge Discovery. Robotics. Intelligent Transport and Advanced Manufacturing. Advanced Communications and Multimedia Applications. Bioinformatics and Medicine. Online Quality Control and Fault Diagnosis. Condition Monitoring Systems. Adaptive Evolving Controller Design. User Activities Recognition. Huge Database and Web Mining. Visual Inspection and Image Classification. Image Processing. Cloud Computing. Multiple Sensor Networks. Query Systems and Social Networks. Alternative Statistical and Machine Learning Approaches. Special Sessions Proposals Distinguished researchers working in theory, analysis and applications of evolving adaptive and intelligent systems and related areas are encouraged to submit proposals within the technical scope of IEEE EAIS 2022. Researchers interested in organising special sessions are invited to submit a formal proposal to the Special Sessions Chair Gabriella Casalino (gabriella.casalino(a)uniba.it) and to the General Chair George Angelos Papadopoulos (george(a)cs.ucy.ac.cy) by specifying: - Special Session Lead Organiser email address, details and mini-bio - Co-Organiser(s) details and mini-bio (optional) - Special Session title - Aim and scope of the Special Session (~half a page) - A list of main topics of the Special Session - A list of potential/expected contributors Important Dates • Special Session proposal submission: October 1, 2021 • Special Session proposal acceptance: October 10, 2021 • Paper submission: January 10, 2022 • Notification of acceptance/rejection: February 19, 2022 • Camera ready submission: March 20, 2022 • Authors registration: March 20, 2022 • Conference Dates: May 25-27, 2022 Social Media FB: https://www.facebook.com/IEEEEAIS Twitter: https://twitter.com/IEEE_EAIS Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/events/2022ieeeconferenceonevolvingand681556007867… Organization Honorary Chairs • Dimitar Filev, Ford Motor Co., USA • Nikola Kasabov, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand General Chairs • George A. Papadopoulos, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus • Plamen Angelov, Lancaster University, UK Program Committee Chairs • Giovanna Castellano, University of Bari, Italy • José A. Iglesias, Carlos III University of Madrid, Spain

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Digital Superheroes Call for Papers
by Sarah Young 24 Sep '21

24 Sep '21

Hi All, This call for chapters might be of interest to some on this list. The Digital Age of Superheroes: Superheroes and Data Superhumans have long been leading stars of popular culture, from their inception as the masked vigilantes of the early 1900s to the recent blockbuster Marvel and DC film series and accompanying media. With the recent closure of Marvel’s Phase 3, and the seemingly unavoidable permeation of superhero genre elements to a variety of visual media, it is an apt time to look back on the genre’s explosion to prominence over the last decade. Following Peter Coogan’s proposal that superhero texts constituted a genre of its own, the superhero’s connection to nationalism (Dittmer, 2013; Murray, 2011), identity (Robbins, 1996; Brown, 2011; Easthope, 1990), mythology (Reynolds, 1992; Eco, 1972), and fan culture (Jenkins, Shresthova, Kligler-Vilenchik, and Gamber-Thompson, 2016. Brown, 2012) has been explored. The development of the superhero may be charted through its engagement in different posthuman expressions (Jeffery, 2016), and focus on social developments (Gibson, Ormrod, and Huxley, 2015). In reacting to the zeitgeist, or prevailing focus, of an era, the superhero has previously fought Nazis, participated in Cold War tensions, and addressed the careful balance of government oversight and civilian independence following acts of terrorism and subsequent legislation. How, though, are superheroes reacting to our zeitgeist, the age of digital media? How have superheroes adapted to this new world, and how might they help us understand it and our place within it? While superheroes as depicted in comics, film, and television are popular scholarly areas of inquiry, less attention has been paid to the intersection of the digital and the superhuman. Digital elements not only provide the tools or backdrops for the superhero, digital pieces can also permeate and compose the superhuman body. Superhumans can be digital themselves, their stories are increasingly delivered in digitized ways, and their use of technology can be prominent features of their superhero identity (e.g. Iron Man, Batman). We invite article abstracts on the theme of digital superheroes and their relationship with the internet and data to form a collection of essays addressing this unexplored intersection. We are particularly interested in topics that explore: - Digital superhumans - Transmedia/platform superhuman storytelling - Superhero video games - Digital distribution of superhuman genres - Importance and use of new/digital media and digital media aesthetics in superhuman genres (how do these effects change the ethos of the super?) - Superhero fan cultures and the internet - Surveillance and/or privacy and the superhuman. - Hauntology of the web and its expression in superhero texts. - Connection, community, and crisis We encourage contributions from all disciplines and interdisciplinary approaches as we aim to address a wide spectrum of angles on this intersection. Article abstracts of 300 words and a short author biography should be submitted to freyja.mccreery(a)york.ac.uk and sarahyoung(a)arizona.edu by 5pm GMT on Friday 19th November 2021 with the subject line “SuperData”. Manuscripts of approximately 5000 words will be due the following June 2022. Many thanks, Sarah Young Adjunct Instructor, University of Arizona School of Information

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Twitter Space 10 AM EST Friday September 24 - "Bots deletions trolls suspensions etc"
by Stuart Shulman 23 Sep '21

23 Sep '21

Are you interested in "Bots deletions trolls suspensions etc"? If so, use the Twitter app to join Marcelo Santos (https://twitter.com/celoo) and Stuart Shulman (https://twitter.com/stuartwshulman) who will co-host a small group of interesting guest speakers as we launch a new Twitter Space on this topic. If you study Twitter data, you will definitely want to listen in at 10 AM EST Friday September 24. https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1kvJpoMmQjPGE Some cool things about Twitter Spaces. It's like a radio show you can have on in the background. No typing is required, so you can just listen while doing other things. There are chances to ask questions and dialogue. You can connect to other listeners and speakers via Twitter during the show. There are moments of serious chemistry and learning. With the exception of Spaces devoted to cryptocurrency, I have found the random connections and conversations in the Spaces I have dabbled in to be really interesting. Please join us if you have an interest and email me directly if you want to be a guest in a future iteration of this Space devoted to Twitter research. ~Stu

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CFP: Source Code Criticism: The Hermeneutics, Philology, and Didactics of Algorithms
by Hannes Bajohr 23 Sep '21

23 Sep '21

*CFP: Source Code Criticism: The Hermeneutics, Philology, and Didactics of Algorithms* Algorithms determine our situation. From bubble sort to Google’s Page Rank, credit scores, and predictive policing, the logic of algorithms intervenes at every step in our lives. Some operate opaquely, shielding their inner workings from curious eyes. Others strive to be transparent, are shared on repositories like GitHub, and follow an ethics of open source accountability. In both cases, however, a more than trivial effort is required to understand the source codes in which algorithms are usually written. The workshop “Source Code Criticism: Hermeneutics, Philology, and Didactics of Algorithms” examines the various ways in which code can be read, interpreted, and made accessible to current and future readers, and investigates its role both as often impenetrable societal force as well as a very particular type of text. In the widest sense, any chain of operation including human and non-human elements requiring symbolic operations is an algorithm. In a narrower sense, however, when we speak of algorithms, we usually mean the texts of higher-level programming languages like Python, Java, or C++. As text, source code is anything but ordinary. It acts as an agent in complex chains of operations and its effects are not confined to the computer alone but impact social, legal, and economic relations in the real world. Algorithms are thus social constructs functioning at the interfaces between humans and machines, implemented in concrete platforms and written by actual humans. A hermeneutics of algorithms has to take this social reality of source codes into account in addressing such questions as: What is the ontological status of algorithms? What is their social, legal, and economic agency? And in what constellations is their apparent objectivity at odds with their cultural embeddedness? Codes are peculiar texts in other ways as well. They perform actions when executed, reducing expressive language to pure imperatives applied to otherwise inert data structures. They are thus at the same time more than and less than ordinary language, requiring a philology that is equally at home in computer science as in textual criticism. However, source code is by its very nature already deeply philological: If philologists contextualise and enrich the source text through commentary, programmers habitually integrate such commentary into their source code. As non-executable lines that are skipped by the compiler, comments are used to elucidate the workings of the code to their current or future readers. Computer scientist Donald Knuth first formulated the idea of software development as a kind of philological critique and proposed that source code should be as intensely documented as possible, thus rendering algorithms self-explanatory, transparent, and comprehensible not only for their authors but also for later readers and editors. The workshop wants to ask what it would mean to take Knuth’s challenge seriously as a philological practice. What could such a “source code criticism” look like? And can we imagine it as a retrospective task for researchers to actively intervene in the source code and add extensive commentary to it? Finally, unlike ordinary text, the performative element of source code also invites us to intervene in it and explore its scope, possibilities, and affordances. Textual criticism and hermeneutics thus become practical and interactive. Such interaction addresses one of the main tasks of the current humanities – to develop a familiarity with coding as such that bridges the gap between the computer sciences and the interpretative disciplines. Code literacy is sorely needed in the humanities. At the very least, as a passive skill: You don’t have to be a literary critic in order to read a novel. Nor do you need to be a computer scientist in order to understand and critically read software code. Yet digital literacy is a critical faculty necessary to understand, disclose, classify, contextualise, and explain code in order to counter the much-invoked power of algorithms. In order to recognise how exactly a user is used by software, it is necessary to decipher, comprehend and critically uncover the design and construction of an algorithm. The workshop addresses scholars within and outside fields such as Critical Code Studies, Software and Platform Studies and media studies, and it invites contributors to comment on the hermeneutics, philology, and didactics of code. The papers should not exceed 30 minutes and should be delivered in English. Please send an *abstract* *of no more than 300 words* and a *brief biographical note* to hannes.bajohr(a)unibas.ch by *October 31st*. The workshop will be held on *March 25, 2022* as a hybrid conference in person in Basel, Switzerland, as well as over Zoom.

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Texas Tech Open Rank Professor in Composition/Writing Studies
by Michael Faris 22 Sep '21

22 Sep '21

Texas Tech’s Technical Communication & Rhetoric program is pleased to announce the following job opening: Open Rank Professor of Technical Communication & Rhetoric in Composition/Writing Studies Texas Tech University’s Technical Communication & Rhetoric program in the Department of English invites applications for an open-rank position in composition/writing studies to begin August 2022. This is a 9-month appointment. We are especially interested in applicants who specialize in composition/writing studies with research and teaching focuses in Latinx studies, cultural rhetorics, writing in the disciplines, multilingualism, and/or antiracist pedagogies/assessment. Preference will be given to applicants with a PhD in Rhetoric and Composition. Applicants with administrative experience, online teaching experience, and a record of scholarship supported by funding are strongly encouraged to apply. Service to the department, college, and university is expected, including program-building as well as graduate teaching. The teaching load is 2-2, with further teaching reductions possible for administrative or national service. With around 120 students in our robust graduate program, our fifteen faculty have opportunities to teach graduate courses in our areas of interest, and we all serve on dissertation committees. We offer the BA in Technical Communication, the MA in Technical Communication, and the PhD in Technical Communication & Rhetoric in onsite, hybrid, and online delivery modalities. We also offer graduate certificates in Grants & Proposals and in Teaching Technical Communication. Our program affords excellent facilities, including communication-rich computer classrooms, and opportunities to conduct research through the Usability Research Lab, the Media Lab, and the Letterpress Studio. The English department also houses the university’s recently revitalized First-Year Writing Program, which serves roughly 3,500-4,000 students a semester. Our university’s strategic plan emphasizes educating and empowering a diverse student body, enabling innovative research and creative activities, and transforming lives and communities through outreach and engaged scholarship. Experience working with diverse student populations and first-generation students is highly desirable. Texas Tech University is designated a Carnegie Tier One (Highest Research Activity) institution and a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI). It has a law school, a medical school, and colleges of Arts and Sciences, Agriculture, Architecture, Business Administration, Engineering, Human Sciences, Media and Communication, and Visual and Performing Arts. The College of Arts and Sciences is the largest of these, representing approximately 29% of the total enrollment of 40,000. The university is located in Lubbock, a rapidly growing city of more than 300,000 on the high plains. Lubbock enjoys 260 days of sunshine every year, little traffic, and a relatively low cost of living. As an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer, Texas Tech University is dedicated to the goal of building a culturally diverse faculty committed to teaching and working in a multicultural environment. We actively encourage applications from all those who can contribute, through their research, teaching, and/or service, to the diversity and excellence of the academic community at Texas Tech University. The university welcomes applications from minoritized candidates, women, protected veterans, persons with disabilities, and dual-career couples. See https://www.depts.ttu.edu/english/programs_degrees/programs/tcr <https://www.depts.ttu.edu/english/programs_degrees/programs/tcr/index.php> for more information. If you are interested in working with passionate, productive colleagues and motivated, talented students, please apply for one of these positions through https://www.depts.ttu.edu/hr/workattexastech <https://www.depts.ttu.edu/hr/workattexastech/> (25650BR) with a letter of application and vita. Dossiers solicited later from exceptionally qualified candidates. Candidates must apply by October 22, 2021. Direct inquiries to the search committee chair, Dr. Michael J. Faris (michael.faris(a)ttu.edu <mailto:michael.faris@ttu.edu>). https://sjobs.brassring.com/TGnewUI/Search/Home/Home?partnerid=25898&siteid… <https://sjobs.brassring.com/TGnewUI/Search/Home/Home?partnerid=25898&siteid…> Dr. Michael J. Faris Associate Professor, Technical Communication and Rhetoric Acting Associate Chair, Department of English Texas Tech University Co-editor, Kairos, http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/

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