This week we turn to sustainability and ethics. We’re also going to be looking at what happens to a region when the army is a significant presence (led by our TA Janine Hubai).

Notes for upcoming weeks

Next week (Week 13), we’ll be having a final project workshop on Monday. We’ll have three synchronous meeting slots, which you may attend to find out more about how to expand Project #4, #5, or #6 into your final project. Those slots will be at 1:30, 2:00, and 2:30—more details in next week’s plan.

Monday

• Check in on Blackboard.
• Listen to this podcast episode, “Voyage into Pizzagate," an episode from my favorite podcast, Reply All; note that this is from 2017. [Warning: some discussion of (not-real) sexual abuse, nothing graphic]

• Listen to our podcast episode or read the transcript.

• Discuss in your group:
  • Reflect on the issue of sustainability in a digital world.
  • Reflect on the Reply All episode.

Additional reading

• “Stimulus checks and other coronavirus relief hindered by dated technology and rocky government rollout”, Washington Post, April 17, 2020: Read this to see what happens when technology changes and people need that technology
• Books about inequality and unethical practices baked into the digital world:
  • Noble, Safiya Umoja. Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. New York: University Press, 2018.
  • D’Ignazio, Catherine, and Lauren F. Klein. Data Feminism. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2020.

Wednesday

• Check in on Blackboard.
• Listen to our podcast for today, with special guest host, Janine Hubai, or read the transcript.

• Discuss in your Slack group:
  • How would you feel if you were suddenly a citizen of a different country? What challenges would you face?
  • How has the United States’ stance toward Native Americans changed (or not) over time?

Further reading

• “Descendants of Native American Slaves in New Mexico Emerge from Obscurity," NPR, December 29, 2016.
• Read here about how Native people have been affected by covid-19