William Bowen, 2019 Graduate Research Grant Winner

Bowen’s “Information Literacy and Ethics in the Age of Technological Disruption”  will take the form of a workshop where local high school students will have the opportunity to think critically about how Big Data and ubiquitous technological devices can be both beneficial and harmful.

Posing ethical questions, as well as analyzing both films and text, will allow us to develop a greater understanding of our contemporary digital moment. While students might not have the opportunity to stop and think about the larger mechanisms that operate behind Netflix’s film suggestions, or advertisements that pop up on Facebook pages, we will delve into this mysterious world of algorithms and codes to think about how technology shapes our subjectivity and interpersonal relationships.