Panelists Crystal Abidin, Brooke Erin Duffy, and Kelechi Okafor, in conversation with Catherine Knight Steele, discuss the performative nature of content creation and the impact of social media on both creators and viewers.

John Pasmore, Jonathan Cropper, and Kareem Edouard, in conversation with Rayvon Fouché, discuss the importance of mentoring young Black boys and increasing media representation to create a more equal technological future.

DISCO’s Undergraduate Program Assistant, Cecilia Ledezma, discusses her role within The DISCO Network’s Search Engines programming series.

Panelists Brooklyne Gipson, Jamilah Lemieux, and AE Stevenson, in conversation with Catherine Knight Steele, discuss the need to divest from short-form content that fuels polarization.

Panelists Beza Merid, Leah Lakshimi Piepzna, Christa Teston, and The Cyborg Jillian Weise share their expertise in navigating the current digital world as disability activists.

Panelists Tara Fickle, Ian Shin, and Jeff Yang discuss the evolving relationship between China and the United States, with the current fear of the “rise of China” in technology.

DISCO Network Program Coordinator Cherice Chan highlights her research and the organization process of recent DISCO events.

Ashley Cordes and Majerle Lister, in conversation with Lisa Nakamura, discuss the importance of Indigenous innovation in our everyday technologies and the process of conducting research in Indigenous communities.

Search Engines staff member Atticus Spicer expresses the success and organization behind bringing trans writer (and now director) Paul B. Preciado to campus.

Spanish artist Paul B. Preciado shares the process of creating his biographical film and hope for the future of the trans community.

NYC-based artist, Molly Soda, gives a talk on her creative work across time and her intimate relationship with the internet as both a content creator and “collector of trash.”

DISCO scholars discuss their newly published book, Technoskepticism: Between Possibility and Refusal (Stanford University Press)

Social media, techno-mess, and imagining collective access.

As April showers roll in and May flowers hopefully follow suit, the Black Communication & Technology (BCaT) Lab reflects on a semester rich in collaborative research, skills-building workshops, meaningful discussions, and a commitment to cultivating communities across several generations of scholars in Black digital humanities studies.

Learn more about Sam’s pedagogical practices and inspirations for his course “Internet (Micro-)Aesthetics.”

How can we create more accessible conference spaces? Panelists Michele Friedner, Ruth Osario, and Victor Zhuang share their expertise in advocating for the needs of disabled people.

A flashlight, a microphone, a 3D printer, a dagger, a teddy bear—a seemingly random collection of objects. And yet, each one represents a story of resistance.

The leaves are turning orange, the mosquitos have gone back to the deepest and darkest part of the earth, and there is a faint pumpkin smell in the air which means it’s officially fall and the BCaT Lab is back and in full swing! We have been having an exciting year of research, academic inquiry, and innovative work focused on Black digital humanities! We are excited to open back up our writing lab, book club, BCaT eats, and so many more events for our BCaT community!

The DISCO Network is very proud to announce that we are continuing our work to envision an anti-racist and anti-ableist digital future as a refreshed and re-booted version of ourselves. 

Over the course of her career as a performance artist and computer programmer, UCLA Design Media Arts professor Lauren Lee McCarthy has engaged with surveillance and control. She has created projects in which she is both observing and being observed. McCarthy spoke about her works in her talk “What Do You Want Me to Say?” as part of the DISCO Search Engines Lecture Series.