Dear colleagues, The Digital Technology for Democracy Lab is pleased to announce the eighth session of the Gender & Tech Online Talk Series, scheduled for February 24, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. (EST). The “Digital Transformation” talk will explore the concept of “digital transformation”: its meanings, purposes, promises, and failures. From infrastructure to community engagement, the speakers will discuss the conflicts between public goods and private interests in the development and deployment of technologies from critical non-Western and Global Majority perspectives. Some of the questions we ask are: How do social inequalities and colonization shape our current framing of digital technologies? What are the main examples of ongoing projects and systems that should be objects of public scrutiny? How is digital transformation changing local communities, participation, and resistance to techno-authoritarianism? What are the best practices when we think of the development and deployment of people-centered digital technologies? We are honoured to welcome two keynote speakers: Jamila Venturini (Derechos Digitales) Madeleine Redfern (CanArctic Inuit Networks). The webinar is free and open to the public. You can register here: https://dtdlab.virginia.edu/event/gender-tech-digital-transformation/ 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. The series is sponsored by the UVA DTD Lab. The conversation will be conducted in English, but we can facilitate questions submitted in Spanish, Portuguese and French. We invite everyone interested in advancing equity and justice in tech governance to participate in this important conversation. Please feel free to share this announcement. 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 and Public Policy Faculty co-lead, Digital Technology for Democracy Lab <https://karshinstitute.virginia.edu/digital-technology-democracy-lab>, University of Virginia <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> reia@virginia.edu | https://datascience.virginia.edu/