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.