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WEBCAST TOMORROW: Sophia Brueckner -- Sci-Fi Prototyping and Critical Optimism (Friday 8pm ET)
by Christian Sandvig 25 Feb '21

25 Feb '21

Hello AoIR, I thought this might be of interest. In addition to what I wrote below I wanted to add: The artifacts that I expect to be described in this talk (like the Embodisuit or the kindle highlight algorithm / romance novel social network commemorative plate collection) make very interesting class discussion material if you teach about technology or social networks. The recording will also be available later if you wish to assign part of it to a class. Christian ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Christian Sandvig <csandvig(a)umich.edu> Date: Thu, Feb 25, 2021 at 10:52 AM Subject: TOMORROW: Sophia Brueckner -- Sci-Fi Prototyping and Critical Optimism (Friday 8pm ET) To: ESC Center <esc-center(a)umich.edu> Dear ESC enthusiasts, I am so happy to report that Sophia Brueckner will appear tomorrow night to provide an overview of her artistic practice. Brueckner, accomplished artist, computer scientist, and former Googler (Google employee), is relentlessly critical of the tech world as it stands today, but her compelling perspective asks: What would a more positive vision of computing look like? Brueckner's art questions surveillance, control and dehumanization with computers by creating projects that offer alternative visions of telepresence, wearables, content curation algorithms, and more. She is also dedicated to opening debates about the ethics of technology to those without a technological background. I hope you can join us. This event is open to the public. Please feel free to forward this e-mail as appropriate. Christian *************************************************** HOW TO PARTICIPATE This is a scheduled video event. At the time stated above, watch via webcast on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYn2vukv4gk This video will be simulcast by Detroit Public Television at dptv.org/pennystamps. A recording of the event may be available at a later date after a delay for processing. Discussion is possible via the comments on the Penny Stamps Speaker Series Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/PennyStampsSeries/ TITLE Sci-Fi Prototyping and Critical Optimism SPEAKER Sophia Brueckner, University of Michigan DATE / TIME / LOCATION Online via YouTube Friday, February 26, 2021 8:00pm - 9:00 pm Eastern Time ABOUT THE SPEAKER Inseparable from computers since the age of two, Sophia Brueckner believes she is a cyborg. As a software engineer at Google, she designed and built products used by tens of millions. At the Rhode Island School of Design and the MIT Media Lab, she researched the simultaneously empowering and controlling aspects of technology with a focus on tangible and social interfaces. Since 2011, Brueckner has taught Sci-Fi Prototyping, a course combining science fiction, extrapolative thinking, building prototypes, and technology ethics at MIT, Harvard, RISD, Brown, and the University of Michigan. Both the class itself as well as the students’ individual projects received international recognition and were featured by The Atlantic, Smithsonian Magazine, Wired, NPR, Scientific American, Fast Company, and many others. Creating new ways to apply science fiction to the design process, Brueckner prototypes alternatives to the tech industry’s limited visions for how we live with technology. She makes both physical and digital artifacts combining software programming, digital fabrication, and electronics with traditional media. These projects challenge the norms of the tech community, whose work has enormous impact on our day-to-day lives, as well as translates the problems in ways that are understandable to the everyday user. She invites others to embody an attitude of “critical optimism” and to imagine what technological futures they might prefer for themselves. Brueckner is the founder and creative director of Tomorrownaut, a creative studio focusing on speculative futures and sci-fi-inspired prototypes. Brueckner’s work has been featured by Artforum, SIGGRAPH, the Peabody Essex Museum, Portugal’s National Museum of Contemporary Art, Leonardo, Eyeo, ISEA, TEDx, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, and more. She was an artist-in-residence at Autodesk Pier 9 and is now an artist-in-residence at Bell Labs Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.). She is currently an assistant professor at the Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design at the University of Michigan. Her ongoing objective is to combine her background in design and engineering with the perspective of an artist to inspire a more positive future. <https://esc.umich.edu/event/hannah-zeavin-auto-intimacy-algorithmic-therapi…> NOTES Link to this event on the Web: https://esc.umich.edu/event/sophia-brueckner-sci-fi-prototyping-and-critica… More information about ESC: The Center for Ethics, Society, and Computing: http://esc.umich.edu/ This event is part of the Penny W. Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series. The 2020-2021 Series is brought to you with the support of Detroit Public Television and PBS Books. -------- LOOKING AHEAD TO OUR NEXT ESC EVENT: <https://esc.umich.edu/event/sophia-brueckner-sci-fi-prototyping-and-critica…> Michael Zimmer: Data Ethics During a Pandemic Thursday, March 11, 2021 at 1pm ET https://esc.umich.edu/event/michael-zimmer/ -------- ESC is generously supported by the School of Information; the Center for Political Studies at the Institute for Social Research; and the Department of Communication & Media in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts at the University of Michigan.

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CfP: Gamevironments Regular Issue - Deadline 1. Feb 2020
by Lisa Kienzl 25 Feb '21

25 Feb '21

Dear Colleagues, below you find the Call for Papers for the online journal GAMEVIRONMENTS (Regular Issue) -- due Feb. 1 2020. We are looking forward to your contributions! Best, Lisa ---------------------------------------------------- Call for Papers: journal GAMEVIRONMENTS Regular Issue 2020 ================ To further explore the multilayered socio-cultural and political contexts of video games and gaming, the international peer-reviewed journal GAMEVIRONMENTS is calling for submissions for its Regular Issue 2020. https://www.gamevironments.uni-bremen.de/ DEADLINES The journal follows a fixed timeline for the Regular Issue each year: 01.02. Full Chapter Submission 15.03. Review Results Returned 01.05. Revised Chapter Submission summer Online-Publication GAMEVIRONMENTS seeks to explore both established approaches and new frontiers of researching video games/gaming as related to religion, culture, and society. The journal encourages inter- and multidisciplinary works combining for example Cultural Studies, History, Religious studies, Theology, Ludology, and Psychology. All submitted articles will be reviewed on a double-blind peer-review basis. PAPER TYPES We include different categories of texts in the journal: a) regular academic articles Normally, articles should be between 5.000 words and 10.000 words in length. In general, a clear structure is of course helpful to understand your argumentation (introduction, discussing the relevance of your idea, theoretical frame, used method(s), case study and amount of new knowledge). b) interviews Next to academic articles we are interested in projects related to games, gamers, gaming and religion, culture, and society. For instance, if you have an interview with a game designer, a pedagogue working with games, etc., please feel free to share it in our journal! c) research reports Sometimes you may just want to give an impression of your current research, an introduction to a new project, or just have a longing for acclamation of about the 5% of successful third part funding that we get for this "weird stuff" – please feel free to do so :) In general, such research reports should be short descriptions between 3000 and 5000 words in length. They are not peer-reviewed, but we as journal editors will give some revisions if necessary. d) book reviews There was a flow in publications concerned with games and religion/culture in the last years, so it could be interesting to introduce and discuss some of them. If you are reading a new book which you think can be helpful for other researchers, feel free to propose a review. Reviews should be around 1000 words. Please note that in most cases, the journal will not be able to provide a free copy for reviews, but will try to source a free copy for you. e) game reviews Due to the fact that we are a games journal that wants to collect, systematize and further develop the various recent multidisciplinary approaches in the research area, we need to know our way around in our field, namely GAMES! So if you are playing a game which you think can be an interesting and promising object of investigation, please send us proposals for a game review. Reviews should be around 1000 words. Please note that in most cases, the journal will not be able to provide a free copy for reviews. Video games are full of images, so it would be a good idea to include some of them, illustrating your argumentation. But, for any image, you need to hold the copyright. Please ensure that! Before publishing with the journal, you need to sign a copyright declaration which we provide. Please send all images as .jpg file(s) to us due to formatting issues. Besides your contribution and images, we need keywords (up to 10), an abstract of up to 200 words, and a brief biographical paragraph (100 to 150 words) with your current institutional address and email address. Please consult the gamevironments submission style sheet before submitting your paper, as well as the Help Desk for some general principles. There is no article processing charge. If you are ready, please send your contribution as an RTF file to the managing editor: kienzl(a)uni-bremen.de. https://www.gamevironments.uni-bremen.de/ -- Dr.Dr. Lisa Kienzl, MA wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin | postdoctoral researcher Arbeitsgebiet Literaturen und Medien der Religionen | Literature and Media of Religions Universität Bremen | University of Bremen Institut für Religionswissenschaft und Religionspädagogik | Institute of Religious Studies and Religious Education Sportturm (SpT) Postfach 330 440 D-28359 Bremen T. +49 (0)421 218 67912 https://www.gamevironments.uni-bremen.de/

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mentions/uses of Bachelard's The Poetics of Space in Internet Studies
by Peter Joseph Gloviczki PhD 25 Feb '21

25 Feb '21

Friends, I'm doing a literature search for uses of Bachelard's *The Poetics of Space* in Internet Studies. If you know of any, could you please share them with me? Glad to compile the list and share with the group Thank you, Peter Peter Joseph Gloviczki, PhD he/him/his Associate Professor of Communication Coker University 300 East College Avenue Hartsville, South Carolina 29550 843.383.8379 pgloviczki(a)coker.edu Assistant Editor, Journal of Loss and Trauma (Taylor & Francis) Immediate Past Head, Cultural and Critical Studies Division, AEJMC 1st Vice President, Carolinas Communication Association Scholarly Books: Mediated Narration in the Digital Age: Storying the Media World <https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496217639/> (University of Nebraska Press, 2021). Journalism and Memorialization in the Age of Social Media <https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137465368> (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015)

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TwitterDev on Twitch Today 1 PM EST
by Stuart Shulman 25 Feb '21

25 Feb '21

There are significant changes underway to the opportunity landscape for academic Twitter research. @TwitterDev has a practical session today at 1 PM EST on TwitchTV: https://www.twitch.tv/twitterdev We are working with non-technical academics who already have, or who are seeking, this new academic access to help them form, test, and optimize their queries before utilizing the generous allocation of this much sought after historical Twitter data. https://developer.twitter.com/en/portal/petition/academic/is-it-right-for-y… This is a sea change moment for academic research using Twitter data. It also comes with technical and management challenges, as well as legal and ethical obligations, some of which are completely unfamiliar to recipients of the new academic access keys. This can range from the practical steps of gathering the raw JSON to the important act of displaying Tweets live in the authentic Twitter display for analysis and classification. The visual and network embeddedness of Tweets in the native Twitter display is fundamental to make meaning of the textual content. Despite the many indispensable daily uses for spreadsheets and Notepad++ when doing Twitter analysis, once the content is transformed from JSON to a spreadsheet format, it is only a Twitter derivative product and no longer Twitter itself. The analysis of flat text outside the media-rich display is by definition incomplete and out of context. Further, the live display ensures Tweets deletions are hidden in real time and that content from suspended accounts is not displayed. IRBs, professors, and ethics experts informing the wider research community take note as it speaks directly to compliance. We offer 3-4 free workshops a week on all of this: https://www.discovertext.com/Workshops ~Stu

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WEBCAST TODAY: Accessibility Challenges: A conversation with ISOC Armenia
by Joly MacFie 25 Feb '21

25 Feb '21

This is the 5th webinar in the ISOC Accessibility SIG's 'Accessibilty & COVID' series. ISOC Live posted: "On Thursday 25 February 2021 at 14:00-15:30 UTC the Internet Society Accessibility Special Interest Group (Accessibility SIG) convenes a meeting with the theme 'Accessibility Challenges: A conversation with ISOC Armenia'. TOPICS 1. Internet Availability " [image: livestream] <http://livestream.com/internetsociety/a11ysigcovid5>On *Thursday 25 February 2021* at *14:00-15:30 UTC* the *Internet Society Accessibility Special Interest Group* <https://a11ySIG.org/> (Accessibility SIG) convenes a meeting with the theme '*Accessibility Challenges: A conversation with ISOC Armenia*'. *TOPICS* 1. Internet Availability Center of Blind and Visually Impaired People 2. Internet Radio for People with Visual Impairments 3. A tool for Autistic Children and Children with social anxiety 4. Let's talk: AAC App for Armenian non-verbal individuals *LIVESTREAM* *http://livestream.com/internetsociety/a11ysigcovid5* <http://livestream.com/internetsociety/a11ysigcovid5> (Open Captions ) *PARTICIPATE VIA ZOOM https://bit.ly/3oZfjbV <https://bit.ly/3oZfjbV> (*Closed Captions) *REAL TIME TEXT* *https://www.streamtext.net/player?event=CFI-A11YSIG* <https://www.streamtext.net/player?event=CFI-A11YSIG> *SIMULCASTS* (Open Captions ) https://www.pscp.tv/ISOC_Live/ https://www.twitch.tv/isoclive *ARCHIVE* *https://archive.org/details/a11ysigcovid5 <https://archive.org/details/a11ysigcovid5>* *Permalink* https://isoc.live/13787/ - -- -------------------------------------- Joly MacFie +12185659365 -------------------------------------- -

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Two vacancies: Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Digital Media and Society, University ofSheffield, UK
by Helen Kennedy 25 Feb '21

25 Feb '21

The Department of Sociological Studies at The University of Sheffield wishes to recruit a Lecturer and a Senior Lecturer in Digital Media and Society, starting on 1 June 2021 or as soon as possible thereafter. The positions are open to candidates with expertise in digital media as they relate to core sociological issues (such as inequality, diversity, identity, everyday life or work). We particularly welcome applications from people with expertise in race and digital media or Chinese digital and social media. Successful candidates will play a key role in contributing to the Department’s portfolio, maintaining its high standards of teaching through delivering modules in Digital Media and Society on BA and MA programmes in this area. They will have a PhD in a relevant discipline, expertise in digital media and society and experience of teaching in this area. They will be able to provide evidence of excellent digital media and society research. The Department of Sociological Studies is committed to understanding society and social change, and to research and teaching that improves people's lives, especially those of the most vulnerable. We are proud to be one of the top social science research departments in the UK, with an international reputation for excellence in research and teaching across Sociology, Social Policy, Social Work and Digital Media and Society. To find out more about our Digital Media and Society research, visit: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/socstudies/research/digital-media-and-society. *Job Reference Number:* UOS027412 *Contract Type*: Open Ended *Working Pattern:* Full-time *Faculty:* Faculty of Social Sciences *Department: *Department of Sociological Studies *Salary: *Lecturer Grade 8: £41,526 - £49,553 per annum with potential to progress to £55,750 per annum through sustained exceptional contribution. Senior Lecturer Grade 9. £52,560 - £59,135 per annum with potential to progress to £68,529 per annum through sustained exceptional contribution. *Closing Date: *1st March 2021 *Interview Dates:* Thursday 25 and Friday 26 March 2021. To find out more go to: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/jobs -- Helen Kennedy, Professor of Digital Society, @hmtk, Living With Data <https://livingwithdata.org/> *RECENT PUBLICATIONS: * Public perceptions of good data management: findings from a UK-based survey <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2053951720935616>, *Big Data and Society* (June 2020, w/Todd Hartman, Robin Steedman & Rhia Jones) *Public Understanding and Perceptions of Data Practices: a review of existing research <https://livingwithdata.org/current-research/publications/>* (May 2020, w/ Susan Oman, Mark Taylor, Jo Bates, Robin Steedman) *Data Visualization in Society <https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789463722902/data-visualization-in-society>* (April 2020, ed w/ Martin Engebretesen, Open Access with Amsterdam University Press)

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Call for papers for the Virtual Conference of the International Journal of Press/Politics
by Cristian Vaccari 25 Feb '21

25 Feb '21

*Call for papers* *Virtual Conference of the International Journal of Press/PoliticsZoom, 13-16 September 2021Deadline for abstracts: 5 July 2021* On *13-16 September 2021*, the seventh conference of the International Journal of Press/Politics, focused on academic research on the relationship between media and political processes around the world, will be held virtually. *Professor Young Mie Kim* from the University of Wisconsin will deliver a keynote lecture. The deadline for submission of abstracts is *5 July 2021*. Attendees will be notified of acceptance by *12 July 2021*. Full papers based on accepted abstracts will be due *1 September 2021*. A selection of the best full papers presented at the conference will be published in the journal after peer review. *The conference will be free to attend*. There will be a voluntary conference registration fee for presenters of GBP 30. Attendees will need to register to receive the secure link to participate in the conference, and those who want to contribute to the conference budget will be able to make a symbolic donation of GBP 5. The software will be able to host up to 500 participants at any time. Recordings of the conference video feed will be made available to the public shortly after the event. The virtual conference brings together scholars conducting internationally oriented or comparative research on the intersection between news media and politics around the world. It aims to provide a forum for academics from a wide range of disciplines, countries, and methodological approaches to advance research in this area. The conference will be held on four days, in half-day sessions alternating mornings and afternoons that will include presentations and networking sessions. The program of the 2020 conference, which adopted a similar format, is available at https://cristianvaccari.com/2020/07/21/program-of-the-2020-international-jo… . Examples of relevant topics include, but are not limited to, the political implications of changes in media systems; the importance of digital media for engaging with news and politics; analysis of the factors affecting the quality of political information and public discourse; studies of the role of entertainment and popular culture in how people engage with current affairs; studies of relations between political actors and journalists; analyses of the role of visuals and emotion in the production and processing of public information; and research on political communication during and beyond elections by government, political parties, interest groups, and social movements. The journal and the conference have a particular interest in studies that adopt comparative approaches, represent substantial theoretical or methodological advances, or focus on parts of the world that are under-researched in the international English language academic literature. Titles and abstracts for papers (*maximum 300 words*) are invited by *5 July 2021*. The abstract should clearly describe the key question, the theoretical and methodological approach, the evidence the argument is based on, as well as its wider implications and the extent to which they are of international relevance. Please send submissions via the online form available at http://bit.ly/IJPP2021. The conference is organized by Cristian Vaccari (Loughborough University, Editor-in-Chief of IJPP). Please contact Professor Vaccari with questions at c.vaccari(a)lboro.ac.uk. More about the journal and the keynote speaker. The International Journal of Press/Politics <https://journals.sagepub.com/home/hijb> The International Journal of Press/Politics is an interdisciplinary journal for the analysis and discussion of the role of the media and politics in a globalized world. The journal publishes theoretical and empirical research which analyzes the linkages between the news media and political processes and actors around the world, emphasizes international and comparative work, and links research in the fields of political communication and journalism studies, and the disciplines of political science and media and communication. The journal is published by Sage Publications and is ranked 16th by Scopus (SJR) and 17th by Journal Citation Reports in Communication. Professor Young Mie Wim, University of Wisconsin <https://journalism.wisc.edu/news/staff/young-mie-kim/> Young Mie Kim is a Professor of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and a Faculty Affiliate of the Department of Political Science. Kim is a 2019 Andrew Carnegie Fellow. Kim’s research concerns data-driven, algorithm-based, digitally mediated political communication. Kim’s recent research project, Project DATA (Digital Ad Tracking & Analysis), empirically investigates the sponsors, content, and targets of digital political campaigns across multiple platforms with a user-based, real-time, ad tracking tool that reverse engineers the algorithms of political campaigns. Kim and her team’s research, “The Stealth Media? Groups and Targets behind Divisive Issue Campaigns on Facebook,” identified “suspicious groups,” including Russian groups on Facebook. The work received the Kaid-Sanders Best Article of the Year in Political Communication (2018), awarded by the International Communication Association. Kim testified at the Federal Election Commission‘s hearings on the rulemaking of internet communication disclaimers and presented her research at the Congressional briefings on foreign interference in elections. Kim also spoke at the European Parliament on her research on data-driven political advertising and inequality in political involvement.

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Announcement: Conference "On Humans and Machines"
by Helm, Paula 25 Feb '21

25 Feb '21

ON HUMANS AND MACHINES HUMAN-MACHINE INTERACTIONS IN DIGITAL_CULTURES Annual conference of the research cluster digitale_kultur at the University of Hagen and the Emmy Noether Research Group (DFG): “The Phenomenon of Interaction in Human-Machine Interaction (MMI)”. The workshop looks at qualitative innovations of current human-machine interactions from an interdisciplinary perspective. Philosophical, cultural-, social- and educational approaches as well as perspectives of the technology developers are being discussed. The focus lies on the social and cultural implications of new MMI. Starting point are current discussions about the limits and potentials of the information paradigm. In the face of current technological developments, it is up to debate whether new forms of MMI can still be described exhaustively by the information paradigm or whether different description modes are needed. As alternative starting points the workshop discusses positions from the fields of postphenomenology, critical code studies and infrastructure research. To what extent are these lines of theory informative for understanding new developments in the field of human-technology relations? And how can such approaches inform new formats of empirical research in the field of digital methods and vice versa? Keynotes speaker Peter Paul Verbeek (Twente) Stefania Milan (Amsterdam) Moderation Selin Gerlek Paula Helm Further information on registration and program on our blog: https://on-humans-and-machines.fernuni-hagen.de/en/home/ Book of Abstract: https://on-humans-and-machines.fernuni-hagen.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/… Organization Selin Gerlek Sarah Kissler Thorben Mämecke Dennis Möbus Johanna Seifert Best regards, Paula Helm. __________________________________ Dr. Paula Helm International Center for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities Department for Society, Culture and Technical Change (SCRATCH) Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen Wilhelmstr. 19 72074 Tübingen

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Videos: COVID Vaccination Misinformation - 24 Feb 2021
by Matthew Moore 24 Feb '21

24 Feb '21

Alex McIntosh: https://youtu.be/YDfisZ08M6U Adam Dunn: https://youtu.be/B3rQM79Pi18 Heidi Larson: https://youtu.be/NJRsNcZH4ho Q&A: https://youtu.be/gwO65A_bIf8 As a result of a massive medical effort, we now have multiple vaccines for COVID-19. However developing vaccines is not sufficient to solve this planetary challenge, people have to take them. Vaccination is a communications and information challenge as well as a biomedical one. In the session, we will discuss: - Why people are hesitant to take vaccines - The role that different actors (e.g. governments, tech companies, the general public) play in vaccine information provision - What this means for the effective roll out of the COVID-19 vaccines, particularly in Australia Alex McIntosh is strategy lead at Reset Australia, a research and advocacy organisation focused on preventing digital harms to democracy, with a current focus on the rising wave of medical and COVID-19 misinformation and the threat it poses to our vaccine rollout. Over the past year she launched Misinformation Medic - a campaign raising public awareness of social media platforms roles in amplifying harmful content during the COVID-19 pandemic. She also led the development of Reset Australia’s Live List policy - a proposal which would mandate transparency from the social media platforms to equip health experts with the data they need to tackle COVID-19 misinformation. Adam Dunn is Head of Biomedical Informatics and Digital Health at the University of Sydney. His research programs are focused applied machine learning in clinical epidemiology and public health. The multidisciplinary teams he leads have examined the epidemiology of health misinformation for more than 5 years. Their work includes the first analyses to examine associations between estimates of information exposure and vaccination coverage, and now looks at when and how to address health misinformation safely and effectively in online communities. Heidi J. Larson, PhD, is Professor of Anthropology, Risk and Decision Science and is the Founding Director of the Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. She is also Clinical Professor of Health Metrics Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, USA, and Guest Professor at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. Dr. Larson previously headed Global Immunisation Communication at UNICEF, chaired GAVI’s Advocacy Task Force, and served on the WHO SAGE Working Group on vaccine hesitancy. She is author of STUCK: How Vaccine Rumors Start – and Why They Don’t Go Away (Oxford U Press, 2020) UTS CRICOS Provider Code: 00099F DISCLAIMER: This email message and any accompanying attachments may contain confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, do not read, use, disseminate, distribute or copy this message or attachments. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete this message. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender expressly, and with authority, states them to be the views of the University of Technology Sydney. Before opening any attachments, please check them for viruses and defects. Think. Green. Do. Please consider the environment before printing this email.

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CfP: 4S Open Panel 178: Technology Needs of the Muslim Communities Around the World
by Peer, Firaz A 24 Feb '21

24 Feb '21

Hello Everyone, The deadline to submit abstracts to the 4S conference is less than a couple of weeks away (8th March to be precise), so I’d like to draw your attention to an open panel we are organizing about the “Technology Needs of Muslim Communities Around the World”. The complete description of the panel is available on the 4S website<https://www.4sonline.org/178-technology-needs-of-the-muslim-communities-aro…>, which I have also included in this email. Please feel free to contact me with any questions you might have. Thanks. 178: Technology Needs of the Muslim Communities Around the World This panel will seek to understand what it means to practice good relations between technologies and humans who adhere to the Islamic way of life. Islam is one of the world’s dominant (23% of the world identify as Muslim) and fastest-growing major religion. While there is much scholarship that focuses on Islam’s spiritual and cultural aspects, there is a paucity of research that considers the relationship between Islam and modern computing technologies. We call for research that focuses on understanding the designs, (non)uses, improvisations, and regulations around the “techno-spiritual” practices of Muslim populations globally. We construe technology broadly and welcome scholarship that offers a more nuanced understanding of Islam and technology design from various scholarly traditions, including sociology, law, anthropology, communication, STS, environmental science, political science, social work, gender studies, health and philosophy. We define “Islam” as an umbrella term for representing different practices of Islam around the world. We hope to contribute to discussions of how technologies shape and are, in turn, shaped by the religious practices within Muslim communities. These practices have implications for development, privacy, security, human rights, social justice, health, substance abuse rehabilitation, sustainability, and islamophobia, while also addressing the broader question around the othering of the Islamic faith from modern Science and Technology practices. In bringing this panel together, we hope to draw attention to Muslim communities’ values and needs, in order to initiate a larger conversation about the technology needs of faith-based communities, which have been largely overlooked by the research community. On behalf of the organizers, Firaz Peer.

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