In fall 2023, I will be teaching an INFO 4940 Special Topics course called Clockwork: Infrastructure, Work, and Time. This experimental seminar-style course explores how ideas about the “right” ways to work in time inform, and are often reinforced by, the design of technologies, from the clock to Amazon’s warehouse scheduling. In the process, we’ll look at the history of why we approach time and technology the way we do, reflect on our own relationships with time and technology, and examine how technological infrastructures affect communities oriented around other ways to value work and time. We’ll use design techniques to explore the relationship between work, time, and infrastructure, and to imagine alternatives. This interdisciplinary course weaves together the sociology of time, history of technology, and research through design.
I also regularly teach INFO/STS 4240: Designing Technology for Social Impact. This course analyzes how social values are (often unconsciously) built into technology at design time and trains students in design methods for addressing social and cultural issues through design. It brings together the sociology and history of technology, technology design, and the arts. No technical background is required. This is a good course for anyone interested in the politics of technology, or in how to build technologies to make the world a better place.
Other courses I have taught
- INFO 1100: Introduction to Media Programming
- STS 111 – The Home of the Future
- COM S/INFO 1300 – Intro Web Design and Programming
- STS 3561 – Computing Culture
- STS/INFO 387 – The Automatic Lifestyle: Consumer Culture & Technology
- S HUM/INFO 415 – Environmental Interventions
- INFO/STS 6341 – Information Technology in Sociocultural Context
- INFO 6490 – Rural computing and rural infrastructure
- INFO 651 – Critical Technical Practices (Formerly CIS/COM S 751 – Media Research and Critical Design)