August 2025 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

Online Seminar Series of the Data Methods Initiative
by Marcel Garz 14 Aug '25

14 Aug '25

The Data Methods Initiative (https://datamethodsinitiative.org/) is a collaborative academic group committed to promoting the use of computational methods (e.g., deep learning, natural language processing, computer vision) in political science, communications, internet research, and other disciplines. Next talk: "Infrastructural Dependencies in the News Industry: Data Capture Under the Hood" by Aske Kammer on September 3, 1:15 - 2:45 pm CET In this seminar, Aske Kammer (Associate Professor at Roskilde University) presents his research into the technical infrastructures that runs "under the hood" of news websites. Integrating theory from (media) management, critical data studies, and journalism studies, he walks us through how he analyzed 147 general news websites from Denmark and mapped the underlying technical infrastructure. On this basis, he presents the network of technology companies that keeps the news running - and discusses the implications of dependencies upon such companies. More info at https://datamethodsinitiative.org/

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Call for Contribution: Playable Southeast Asia edited collection
by iskandar zulkarnain 14 Aug '25

14 Aug '25

Call for Contribution: Playable Southeast Asia: Gaming Cultures, Politics, and Aesthetics in a Multiethnic Region edited volume (will be proposed for publication at Duke UP) Editors: Peichi Chung, Byron Fong, Iskandar Zulkarnain Deadline for abstract: December 1, 2025 Notification of abstract acceptance: February 1, 2026 Deadline for full chapter: December 1, 2026 (tentative) Expected date of publication: 2027 While video games have always been a global phenomenon, they have been received, played, and created differently in different regions and localities (Hjorth and Chan 2009; Huntemann and Aslinger 2013; Penix-Tadsen 2019). These differences add multiple levels of complexity to how we experience them. Games can be, and often are more than just an entertainment medium, capable of serving as a subversive means of self-expression under authoritarian regimes (Svelch 2018), or being converted into cultural currency for both game designers and players (Penix-Tadsen 2016). Games can also exist as platforms of ideological protest, representing voices from below (Mukherjee 2017), or can reveal the “upside/down” logics that have defined the Asia/America geopolitical relationship since the 19th century (Patterson and Fickle 2024). Especially important is how they can also be used as a lens to explore how nations struggle with the legacies of war, colonialism and religious strife that define part of the nation-building process (Kang, Yang, Mochocki, Majewski, and Schreiber 2024). Yet, despite these valuable insights, much of the purportedly global focus of video game studies still emphasizes the experience of regions in the Global North and other conventionally prominent centers for the production and consumption of games, while largely omitting the experiences of the Global South from consideration. By following the path of scholars who focus on regions that have traditionally been underserved by dominant industry players, and thus aiming to rectify the broadly lacking examination of these regions by journalists and academics, this edited collection will focus on gaming cultures, politics, and aesthetics in Southeast Asia. As a region, Southeast Asia offers layered, vast levels of complexity. It is a geopolitical and economic construct deeply rooted within the history of global colonialism. It invites multiple approaches in its mapping and description. The region’s nuances are evident in its most prominent geopolitical construction, ASEAN, as an anti-communist bloc while also having two nominally communist countries in the region (Vietnam and Laos). There is mainland Southeast Asia and there is also maritime Southeast Asia. The southern region has a predominantly Muslim population and the northern region is predominantly Buddhist. Meanwhile, the Philippines and East Timor are the only predominantly catholic countries in the region. The region also has the largest number of Chinese diaspora in the world, mostly living in Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. All these cultural connections and political configurations have shaped and are currently being shaped by the production, circulation, and consumption of video games both from within and outside the region. In terms of video game theory, for instance, a specific play practice in Southeast Asia–Balinese cockfight–contributes to the theoretical formulation of “gamic action” (Galloway 2006), even though it is somewhat underexplored. Furthermore, within the video game industry framework, there is a conscious effort–driven by data analytics–of “mythifying” Southeast Asia as “the world’s fastest growing game region” to attract foreign (i.e. western) investors, creating a depoliticized configuration of the region and flattening cultural and racial differences (Wong 2023). Meanwhile, in an effort to collectively re-imagine Southeast Asia’s regional identity through game art, some independent game studios in the region have adopted two types of approaches: following the production formula of global popular media to achieve “niche globality,” or presenting their version of “contested regionalism” (Chung 2016). In some cases, game developers and professional players in Southeast Asia also participate in the promotion of digital nationalism (Zulkarnain 2014; Jiwandono 2024). In this context, this edited collection aims to further study gaming practices in Southeast Asia that reflect and reshape cultural paradigms in local and regional settings while simultaneously attending to global gaming progression. Here, we want to frame the concept of “Southeast Asia as a method,” following the theoretical formulation of Kuan-Hsing Chen (2010), to emphasize the use of Southeast Asia as an imaginary anchoring point that allows for inter-referentiality between countries within and outside of the region in terms of their gaming cultural practices (e.g. E-sports, industry, indie games, streaming, etc). We are also interested in having a mix of contributions from scholars from the region (or in close proximity to the region, geographically and/or culturally) and perspectives from/interviews with people who are involved in Southeast Asian gaming cultures (e.g. game developers, studios, archivists, gaming communities, etc). Possible topics might include, but not limited to: - Early histories of video game cultures - Identity (e.g. national, gender, racial, sexual, religious) - “Asiatic” style or form in SEA games - Nostalgic aesthetic/themes in SEA games - Labor exploitation and unionization (or lack of) in SEA gaming industry - Historical and counterhistorical representation in SEA games - Inter-regional citation practice among indie or AAA game developers - Significance of paratextual elements in SEA games (e.g. streaming, game magazines, gaming clubs) - Cultural representations in SEA games (e.g. religious, linguistic, or national) - The roles of the state in SEA gaming cultures - Archival initiatives of SEA games - Decolonizing SEA in video games - Gaming platforms in Southeast Asian context - Video games as a heritage - Gaming preservation - E-sports cultures in SEA - Mobile gaming cultures - Video game bans by the state/state apparatuses Abstract submissions should comprise of: 1. Abstract (250-500 words) 2. Author information (short biographical statement of 200 words) Submissions should be sent to playablesea(a)gmail.com. Abstract submissions will then undergo an internal editorial review process. Authors will be notified of the outcome as soon as reports are received. Chapter submissions should comprise of: 1. Full-length article (5000-9000 words), including references and a bibliography, or 2. Perspectives/Interviews (3000-5000 words) in English or translated 3. Final author information (short biographical statement of 200 words) Feel free to send us questions regarding this proposed edited collection. References: Chen, Kuan-Hsing, Asia as Method: Toward Deimperialization, Duke UP (2010) Chung, Peichi, “The Globalization of Game Art in Southeast Asia,” in Hjorth, Larissa, and Olivia Khoo (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of New Media in Asia, Routledge (2016) Galloway, Alexander, Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture, University of Minnesota Press (2006) Hjorth, Larissa, and Dean Chan (Eds.), Gaming Cultures and Place in Asia-Pacific, Routledge (2009) Huntemann, Nina B., and Ben Aslinger (Eds.) Gaming Globally: Production, Play, and Place, Palgrave Macmillan (2013) Jiwandono, Haryo Pambuko, “Mobile Game Esports as an Indonesian National Identity,” in Kang, Yowei, Kenneth C.C. Yang, Michal Mochocki, Jakub Majewski, and Pawel Schreiber (Eds.), Asian Histories and Heritages in Video Games, Routledge (2024) Kang, Yowei, Kenneth C.C. Yang, Michal Mochocki, Jakub Majewski, and Pawel Schreiber (Eds.), Asian Histories and Heritages in Video Games, Routledge (2024) Mukherjee, Souvik, Videogames and Postcolonialism: Empire Plays Back, Palgrave Macmillan (2017) Patterson, Christopher B., Open World Empire: Race, Erotics, and the Global Rise of Video Games, NYU Press (2020) Patterson, Christopher B., and Tara Fickle (Eds.), Made in Asia/America: Why Video Games Were Never (Really) About Us, Duke UP (2024) Penix-Tadsen, Phillip, Cultural Code: Video Games and Latin America, The MIT Press (2016) ___________ (Ed.), Video Games and the Global South, ETC Press/Carnegie Mellon University (2019) Švelch, Jaroslav, Gaming the Iron Curtain, The MIT Press (2018) Wong, K. T., “The Data-Driven Myth and the Deceptive Futurity of ‘The World’s Fastest Growing Games Region’: Selling the Southeast Asian Games Market via Game Analytics,” Games and Culture, Vol. 18(1), 2023: 42-61 Zulkarnain, Iskandar, “‘Playable’ Nationalism: Nusantara Online and the ‘Gamic’ Reconstructions of National History,” SOJOURN, Vol. 29(1), 2014: 31-62 Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NUz_G8GzGSEkYUXPDS2QTIRar3mC288XrCRx5kk… -- Iskandar "Izul" Zulkarnain, Ph.D. (He/him) Assistant Professor of Media and Society Global Digital Media Hobart and William Smith Colleges Personal website: http://digitalperipheries.net/ "Ilmu itu untuk dibagi, bukan untuk dimiliki!"

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Zoom Seminar - Environmental Impacts of AI
by Sy Taffel 13 Aug '25

13 Aug '25

The Environmental Impacts of AI Christine Parker, University of Melbourne and Sy Taffel, Massey University Wednesday 20th August, 12:00 - 13:00 NZST Zoom: https://massey.zoom.us/j/83251724991 While Big Tech corporations contend that an AI-driven future is both inevitable and a way of straightforwardly fixing climate change and other ecological crises, there has been increasing levels of concern surrounding the environmental impacts of AI. Join Christine Parker and Sy Taffel for a discussion of how we can cut through the greenwash, move beyond simplistic rhetoric of AI as ‘poison’ or ‘saviour’, and demystify some of the problems, practices and potentials surrounding the multiple and complex relationships between AI and the environment. Christine Parker is a Professor of Law at Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne and Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision Making and Society<https://www.admscentre.org.au/>. Christine teaches and researches socio legal approaches to lawyers’ ethics, business regulation and corporate accountability. Sy Taffel is a Senior Lecturer in Media Studies and co-director of the Political Ecology Research Centre at Massey University, Aotearoa-New Zealand. Sy’s research focuses upon the ecological, material, cultural, and political affordances of digital technologies. His current research project explores the intersections between digital technologies and postgrowth futures. 2025 marks ten years of Massey’s Political Ecology Research Centre (PERC). We are celebrating the occasion by holding a seminar series based on the theme of ‘Environmental Futures’. Across a diverse range of speakers, we will be reflecting on the developments and conversations that have followed on from PERC events and looking toward the future. To see all of the speakers in this series, visit this webpage<https://perc.ac.nz/wordpress/environmental-futures-seminar-series> Ngā mihi nui, Sy Taffel and Alice Beban (PERC co-directors)

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Question about AOIR dates
by amarwick＠gmail.com 13 Aug '25

13 Aug '25

Hi all, I'm trying to book my flight for AOIR. Does anyone know if the closing party will be on Saturday night? Thanks! Alice --- Alice E. Marwick, PhD (she/her) Director of Research, Data & Society Senior Faculty Researcher, Center for Information, Technology and Public Life (CITAP) University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill amarwick(a)gmail.com http://www.tiara.org | http://www.datasociety.net | http://citap.unc.edu

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The Annual ACM Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI 2026): Last Call for Workshop Proposals
by Announce 12 Aug '25

12 Aug '25

*** Last Call for Workshop Proposals *** The Annual ACM Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI 2026) March 23-26, 2026, 5* Coral Beach Hotel & Resort, Paphos, Cyprus https://iui.hosting.acm.org/2026/ We are pleased to invite proposals for workshops to be held in conjunction with the Annual International ACM Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (ACM IUI 2026), Paphos, Cyprus. Workshops aim to provide a venue for presenting research on emerging or specialized topics of interest and to offer an informal forum for discussing research questions and challenges. Potential workshop topics should be related to the general theme of the conference (“Where HCI meets AI”). We welcome proposals for a wide range of *full-day* or *half-day* workshops, including but not limited to: • Mini Conferences: Workshops that focus on a specific topic and may have their own paper submission and review processes. • Interactive Formats: Workshops that encourage active participation and hands-on experiences through break-out sessions or group work to explore specific topics. They may have their own paper submission and review process or target a report summarizing the discussions and outcomes. • Emerging Work Sessions: Workshops that foster discussion around emerging ideas. Organizers may raise specific topics and invite position papers, late-breaking results, or extended abstracts. • Project-Centric Formats: Workshops tied closely to a specific existing large-scale funded project(e.g., NSF, EU) with the goal to engage a broader community. • Interactive Competitions: Formats that invite individuals and teams to participate in challenges or hackathons on selected topics relevant to IUI. Review and Oversight by Workshop Chairs Proposals will be reviewed and evaluated by the Workshop Chairs. It is possible that workshops may be cancelled, shortened, merged, or restructured if there are insufficient submissions. Workshop summaries will be included in the ACM Digital Library for ACM IUI 2026. We will also publish joint workshop proceedings for accepted workshop submissions (through CEUR or a similar venue). Responsibilities of Workshop Organizers • Coordinate the Call for Papers, including solicitation, submission handling, and peer review process. • Create and maintain a dedicated website with workshop information. The IUI 2026 website will link to this page. • Prepare and communicate a Call for Participation, targeting both IUI and broader relevant communities (e.g., via mailing lists, social media, newsgroups, or offline events). • Facilitate the planned activities, including paper presentations, discussions, and/or interactive elements. • Submit a workshop summary for inclusion in the ACM Digital Library. • Collect camera-ready papers and author agreements from workshop participants for the joint workshop proceedings (CEUR or similar). Note that for the joint proceedings (CEUR or similar), submissions should be peer-reviewed and will need to meet publishers’ guidelines. CEUR, for example, requires a 5-page minimum per contribution. Note that not all workshop formats listed above may meet these requirements, and we may not be able to include them. IUI 2026 is an in-person event, and we expect workshop organizers to attend, allowing the workshop to be conducted on-site. One author per paper is expected to attend in person to present the work. Proposal Format Workshop proposals should be a maximum of four pages long (single-column format). Prepare your submission using the latest templates: Word Submission Template (https://authors.acm.org/binaries/content/assets/publications/taps/acm_submi…) or the LaTex Template (https://authors.acm.org/proceedings/production-information/preparing-your-a…) For Latex, please use “\documentclass[manuscript,review]{acmart}”. The proposals should be organized as follows: • Name and title: A one-word acronym and a full title. Please indicate “(Workshop)” after the title. • Abstract: A brief summary of the workshop. • Description of workshop topic: Should discuss the relevance of the proposed topic to IUI and its interest for the IUI 2026 audience. Include a concise discussion of why this workshop is particularly relevant for the intended audience and how it will complement and enhance topics covered at the main conference. • Previous history: List of previous workshops on this topic, including the conferences that hosted them and the number of participants. If available, report on past editions of the workshop (including URLs), along with a brief statement of the workshop series (e.g., covering topics, number of paper submissions, and participants), as well as post-workshop publications over the years and acceptance statistics. If this is the first edition of the workshop, describe how it differs from others on similar topics (e.g., by including conference names and years). • Organizer(s): Names, affiliations, emails, and web pages of the organizer(s). Provide a brief description of the background of the organizer(s). Strong proposals normally include organizers who bring differing perspectives on the topic and are actively connected to the communities of potential participants. Please indicate the primary contact person and the organizers who will attend the workshop. Also, please provide a list of other workshops organized by workshop organizers in the past. • Workshop program committee: Names and affiliation of the members of the (tentative) workshop program committee that will evaluate the workshop submissions. • Participants: Include a statement of how many participants you expect and how you plan to invite participants for the workshop. If possible, include the names of at least 10 people who have expressed interest in participating in the workshop or tutorial. • Workshop activities: A brief description of the format regarding the mix of events or activities, such as paper presentations, invited talks, panels, demonstrations, teaching activities, hands-on practical exercises, and general discussion. • Planned outcomes of the workshop: What are you hoping to achieve by the end of the workshop? Please list here any planned publications or other outcomes expected. • Length: Full-day or half-day. Submission Platform • All materials must be submitted electronically to PCS 2.0 http://new.precisionconference.com/~sigchi by the proposal submission deadline. • In PCS 2.0, first click "Submissions" at the top of the page, from the dropdown menus for society, conference, and track, select "SIGCHI", "IUI 2026", and then "IUI 2026 Workshops", and press "Go". We encourage both researchers and industry practitioners to submit workshop proposals. To support diverse perspectives in the workshops, we strongly recommend including organizers from varied institutions and backgrounds. Furthermore, we welcome workshops with an innovative structure that can attract diverse types of contributions and foster valuable interactions. Prospective organizers are encouraged to contact the Workshop Chairs in advance (workshops2026(a)iui.acm.org) to discuss ideas, receive feedback, or seek assistance in preparing engaging proposals. Especially for workshop proposals featuring innovative interactive formats, we are happy to help further develop and implement the ideas. Important Dates (AoE) • Workshop Proposals: August 22, 2025 • Decision Notification: September 19, 2025 • Camera-ready Summaries: February 6, 2026 Workshop Chairs Karthik Dinakar, Pienso, USA Werner Geyer, IBM Research, USA Patricia Kahr, University of Zurich, Switzerland Antonela Tommasel, CONICET, Argentina

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We are Hiring: Assistant Professor - Knowledge Systems, Infrastructures, Communities, and Cultures - Faculty of Information, University of Toronto
by Evan Light 12 Aug '25

12 Aug '25

Dear Colleagues, The Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto is hiring an Assistant Professor in the area of Knowledge Systems, Infrastructures, Communities, and Cultures, with an anticipated start date of July 1, 2026 (or shortly thereafter). The closing date is October 7, 2025. Please distribute the job ad widely in your own personal networks. Assistant Professor - Knowledge Systems, Infrastructures, Communities, and Cultures Job Details | University of Toronto <https://jobs.utoronto.ca/job-invite/43240/> -- Evan Light Associate Professor, Policy Studies Coordinator, Critical Information Policy Studies, Masters of Information Faculty of Information / iSchool University of Toronto

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Call for Abstract/Special issue: Gender Politics and Moral Norms Across Media
by Zhen Ye 12 Aug '25

12 Aug '25

Call for Abstract/Special issue: Gender Politics and Moral Norms Across Media Media and Communication https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/issue/futureissues#i505 Deadline for abstracts: 1-15 September 2025 Deadline for decisions on abstracts: 30 September 2025 Deadline for articles: 15-31 January 2026 About the issue In recent years, we have witnessed a growing body of research focused on identity politics, public shaming, and social outrage in the contemporary media landscape. Morality is often at the core of these debates. At times, societies are gripped by moral panics (Cohen, 1972/2011) and attribute the cause of such feelings of panic to certain media products such as TV dramas, reality TV, or advertising (Critcher, 2006; Guo, 2017). Yet, evidence that these media products contribute to audiences’ moral imagination and reflection in a positive sense increases (Bilandzic et al., 2017; Krijnen, 2009, 2011; Krijnen & Tan, 2009; Krijnen & Verboord, 2011, 2016). On social media platforms, the entanglement of morality with actions of gender-based harassment, status-seeking, and intergroup conflicts (Huang, 2021; Marwick, 2021) always dominates public attention. On the one hand, the existing moral norms and standards are often used to legitimize individual online practices and even to mobilize collective actions; on the other hand, the state and market actors draw on moral norms to regulate and moderate media content under the name of protecting public interests. This thematic issue aims to explore the historical trajectory and continuity of the vital role of media in shaping social dynamics and moral norms, particularly through the lens of gender, from a global perspective. We welcome contributions that empirically and theoretically engage with the topic of gender, media, and morality, and encourage contributors to reflect on the topic with its intersections of class, race, geopolitics, etc. For example, and not limited to: * In the process of formation and mobilization of moral norms, what roles do media play? * How can we critically study, analyze, and compare the complex moralized rhetoric across media? * What are the political and social consequences when the moralized rhetoric is used to target specific social groups (i.e. women and LGBTQ communities)? * What kinds of power dynamics between individuals, social institutions, market actors, and nation-states are reflected in the construction of moral norms? Instructions for Authors Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal's instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system. When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Media and Communication is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee). Editor(s):Tonny Krijnen (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Zhen Ye (Erasmus University Rotterdam), and Qian Huang (University of Groningen) If you have any question, contact: ye[at]eshcc[dot]eur[dot]nl

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RECORDING – The UK Online Safety Act – A discussion with Robin Wilton
by Joly MacFie 12 Aug '25

12 Aug '25

[image: ISOC LIVE] <https://isoc.live/%2019585>*YOUTUBE <https://youtu.be/yieJSF-96mA> | AUDIO <https://archive.org/download/robin_wilton_online_safety_act/robin_wilton_on…>**TRANSCRIPT <https://archive.org/download/robin_wilton_online_safety_act/robin_wilton_on…> | SUMMARY <https://archive.org/download/robin_wilton_online_safety_act/robin_wilton_on…>**ARCHIVE <https://archive.org/details/robin_wilton_online_safety_act> | PERMALINK <https://isoc.live/%2019585>* On *August 1 2025*, the *Internet Society Cybersecurity Special Interest Group <https://www.internetsociety.org/sigs/cybersecurity/>* (ISOC Cybersecurity SIG) conducted a discussion with *Robin Wilton <https://www.internetsociety.org/author/wilton/>* on the UK *Online Safety Act <https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/online-safety-act-explainer/onli…>*. The Act, which imposes stringent age verification requirements on both users and providers has just come into effect, causing a *surge in VPN subscriptions <https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/2091749/expressvpn-…>* . *SPEAKER* *Robin Wilton* – Senior Director – Internet Trust, Internet Society, discusses the UK Online Safety Act. *HOST/MODERATOR* *Weke* – ISOC Cybersecurity SIG - -- -------------------------------------- Joly MacFie +12185659365 -------------------------------------- -

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Call for Participation: "From Tech Lash to Tech Fash: Strategic reflections on a decade of collective organizing in computing" at Aarhus Conference 2025
by Jensine Raihan 11 Aug '25

11 Aug '25

Hello all, We are excited to invite you all to participate in a hybrid workshop "*From Tech Lash to Tech Fash: Strategic reflections on a decade of collective organizing in computing" *which will take place at the Aarhus Conference 2025 on Tuesday August 19, 8:30–11:30 am EST / 2:30–5:30 pm CEST. *Workshop Description* Computing is a field plagued with presentism, oriented towards the new in ways that limit our design and research practices - as well as our capacity to understand and collectively respond to emerging crises. To improve our sensemaking and strategizing about today's crises, this workshop explores what Tamara Kneese has deemed the last decade's shift from "techlash" to "tech fash". What have we learned from the era of misinformation and bias, of "surveillance capitalism" and tech worker organizing that can inform our struggle against the increasing power of a techno-fascist oligarchy? We will also look towards previous generations of computing professionals and activists, who likewise sought to address the harms of emerging automated systems and the complicity of computing within violent, imperialist projects. This workshop will create space for participants to explore these questions collectively, bridging past and present moments in an effort to devise strategies moving forward. Interested in reflecting and strategizing together? *RSVP here <https://airtable.com/apppoI4WdDBW7ydB2/pagPa3NTT6VaS2P8H/form>*! *Important Information*: - RSVP <https://airtable.com/apppoI4WdDBW7ydB2/pagPa3NTT6VaS2P8H/form> Deadline: August 12th AOE (Anywhere on Earth) - Workshop Website <https://tech-organizing-reflections.github.io/> (find tentative agenda and other details) [image: image.png] Hope to see you there! Jensine Raihan (along with workshop co-organizers Linda Huber, Pedro Reynolds-Cuellar, Alicia DeVrio, Cella M Sum, Lynn Dombrowski, Justine Zhang, Christoph B Becker, Lilly Irani, P M Krafft, Maureen Webb & Margaret Hughes)

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Gender & Tech Online Talk Series – August 28, 11am EDT - Platform Governance
by Jess Reia 11 Aug '25

11 Aug '25

Dear colleagues, The University of Virginia School of Data Science, in partnership with the Digital Technology for Democracy Lab, is pleased to announce the third session of the Gender & Tech Online Talk Series, which will take place on August 28, 2025, at 11:00 a.m. (EDT). The “Platform Governance” session will discuss free speech regulation, activism, and platform policies. Speakers will be encouraged to address the role that feminist labor activism and policy reforms play in creating platforms that prioritize social justice and human rights, the prevalent perspectives on freedom of expression in social media governance, the way cultural norms and systemic biases in tech influence freedom of expression online, and the necessary reforms to advance minorities’ participation in platform governance from an STS education and practice perspective. We are honoured to welcome two keynote speakers: Julie Owono (Internet Sans Frontières & Meta Oversight Board) Coleen Carrigan (UVA Engineering). The webinar is free and open to the public. You can register here: https://virginia.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_XBBg61Y2QzWMWpGN__9z0g#/regist… The Gender & Tech Online Talk Series brings together leading scholars, advocates, and practitioners to examine the intersections of gender, technology, democracy, and human rights. Its purpose is to critically explore how digital platforms and technological infrastructures impact women, queer, and gender-diverse individuals, while also identifying pathways toward more inclusive, rights-based models of digital governance. We invite everyone interested in advancing equity and justice in digital governance to participate in this important conversation. The series is co-organized by Yasmin Curzi and Jess Reia and sponsored by the UVA School of Data Science and DTD Lab. Please feel free to circulate this announcement within your networks. Thank you! Jess and Yasmin *Jess Reia, Ph.D. (they/them)* Andrew Carnegie Fellow <https://www.carnegie.org/awards/honoree/jess-reia/> Assistant Professor of Data Science Faculty co-lead, Digital Technology for Democracy Lab <https://karshinstitute.virginia.edu/digital-technology-democracy-lab>, University of Virginia Visiting Scholar, Institute for Global Public Policy <https://igpp.fudan.edu.cn/igppen/main.htm>, Fudan University 2024-2025 Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Democracy & Technology <https://cdt.org/> <https://karshinstitute.virginia.edu/> New book: Urban Music Governance <https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/U/bo245009492.html> <https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/U/bo245009492.html>

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