Journalists and pundits have described political polarization as one of the foremost problems of our time. It has been ascribed to trends such as changing party compositions, racial and ethnic divisions, and the rise of partisan cable news. This seminar will present new research on social media and political polarization in both the United States […]
In this talk, I explain what happens when human rights advocates try to change computer code, instead of legal code to protect human rights online. There is a growing chorus of policymakers and regulators calling on the tech sector to respect human rights and engage civil society, but very little empirical knowledge of what happens […]
Imagine living in a society in which most of the land and buildings available for meeting and working were owned by a few for-profit corporations. Churches, governments, groups of friends, schools, nonprofits, and grassroots social movements would each have to reserve space on — or have a key to — a privately-owned facility, often on […]
Imagine living in a society in which most of the land and buildings available for meeting and working were owned by a few for-profit corporations. Churches, governments, groups of friends, schools, nonprofits, and grassroots social movements would each have to reserve space on — or have a key to — a privately-owned facility, often on […]
With the global onset of COVID-19, broadband access has never been more vital to our economies, democracies, and social well-being. The pandemic, however, painfully demonstrated the extent to which people in the United States are un- and under-connected. At least 42 million Americans lack access to broadband because of infrastructure availability, while upwards of 162 […]
The Oxford Internet Institute hosts Lisa Nakamura, lisanakamura.net, Director, Digital Studies Institute, Gwendolyn Calvert Baker Collegiate Professor, Department of American Culture, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Professor Nakamura is the founding Director of the Digital Studies Institute at the University of Michigan, and a writer focusing on digital media, race, and gender. We are living […]
On November 10, Ronald J. Deibert, renowned technology and security expert, will discuss the disturbing influence and impact of the internet on politics, the economy, the environment, and humanity. In his new book ‘Reset: Reclaiming the Internet for Civil Society’, Deibert will explore how the expansion of society towards a system of surveillance capitalism has […]
Hate and harassment have proliferated online in recent years, posing serious threats to college and university faculty. Women, BIPOC, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community continue to be disproportionately targeted and intimidated, posing a threat to the equitable exchange of ideas in the public sphere. Many faculty have been left to fend for themselves, with […]
From scholarly article to practical guides, from textbooks to media, from weighty tomes to tweets, researchers and academic writers have many options today. While academic writers still write books and articles, forms and formats are changing. Electronic journals can include links to media, and increasingly open access journals make it easier to reach academics, professionals, […]
In many emerging economies, a significant mobile gender gap persists—in which women not only have less access to mobile internet and mobile money, but continue to lag in mobile phone ownership. Drawing on one of the first large-scale experimental studies of mobile phone ownership among women, we analyze the effects of reducing this gender gap. […]