School of Information Sciences

iSchool researchers to present work at Technocracy Conference

This week, iSchool PhD students and faculty will present their research at the Technocracy Conference. Hosted by the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory at the University of Illinois on March 5–6, the conference will begin with a panel of graduate student papers and continue the following day with invited speakers and a keynote. All events will take place at the Levis Faculty Center on the Urbana campus. 

"Grounded in critical theory, this conference will draw from biopolitical critique and science and technology studies to interrogate the ideological underpinnings of technocracy and its consequences for democracy, sovereignty, and the possibility of alternative futures," said D. Fairchild Ruggles, director of the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory.

iSchool Participation:

PhD student Chris Wiley will present the paper, "Technocracy of Visibility: Algorithms, Omission, and Black Trans Men Online."

PhD student Theodore Dreyfus Ledford will present the paper, "Technocracy, Expertise and Epistemic Democracy: Revaluing Labor Knowledge in AI Governance."

Professor Anita Say Chan will give the presentation, "Predatory Data: Eugenics in Big Tech and Our Fight for an Independent Future."

Chan will be introduced by Adjunct Associate Professor Laila Hussein Moustafa, Middle East and North African Studies Librarian, University Library.

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

BIG: Solving real problems for real organizations

Students in the Business Intelligence Group (BIG)—the experiential learning consultancy program affiliated with Associate Professor Yoo-Seong Song's Applied Business Research courses (IS 494 and IS 514)—spent the spring semester working directly with organizations across industries, including health care, financial services, aviation, gaming, community services, and higher education. 

Business Intelligence Group (BIG) student consultants smile on the steps of Foellinger Auditorium with Associate Professor Yoo-Seong Song

Cao and Liu receive Best Paper Award for FreeOrbit4D

PhD student Wei Cao and Assistant Professor Yaoyao Liu received a Best Paper Award at the 4th Workshop on Generative Models for Computer Vision, which was held during the 2026 IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR). 

Wang group receives ICWSM Best Dataset Paper Award

A paper from Professor Dong Wang's Social Sensing & Intelligence Lab received the Best Dataset Paper Award at the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM) held in May 2026 in Los Angeles, California. According to Wang, the paper was accepted in the first review round, which had an acceptance rate of 4.7 percent (14 of 298 submissions). 

Adler and Wang to present at RESPECT 2026

Associate Professor Rachel Adler and Informatics PhD student Olive Wang will present their work at the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education Conference on Research on Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT), which will be held in Chicago this week.

Bashir group presents work at PEPR 2026

PhD students Ramazan Yener, Eryue Xu, and Mubarak Raji presented their research this week at the 2026 USENIX Conference on Privacy Engineering Practice and Respect (PEPR) in Santa Clara, California. PEPR is focused on designing and building products and systems with privacy and respect for their users and the societies in which they operate. The students received USENIX grants covering their conference registration and providing travel support to attend the conference. 

Bashir group PEPR 2026

School of Information Sciences

501 E. Daniel St.

MC-493

Champaign, IL

61820-6211

Voice: (217) 333-3280

Email: ischool@illinois.edu

Back to top