Critical Data Studies A Cross-College Collaboration

Course Schedule

Spring 2022

CRITICAL DATA STUDIES COURSES
  • ILS 23000, Data Science and Society: Ethical, Legal, Social Issues

This course provides an introduction to Ethical, Legal, Social Issues (ELSI) in Data Science. Students will be introduced to interdisciplinary theoretical and practical frameworks that can aid in exploring the impact and role of Data Science in society. Simultaneous or previous enrollment in CS 24200 Introduction to Data Science or equivalent is a suggested prerequisite for Data Science majors, minors and certificate students. 

This is a writing-intensive course. Students will work individually and on collaborative assignments. The course counts toward the Data Science and BAIM majors, Data Science minor, and the Data Science, STS and DH undergraduate certificates.

  • ILS 39500, Critical Data Studies

Critical Data Studies (CDS) is an interdisciplinary field that addresses the ethical, legal, socio-cultural, epistemological and political aspects of data science, big data and digital infrastructure. This course focuses on current topics in critical data studies scholarship. In this iteration of the course, particular emphasis will be given to democratic and participatory approaches to algorithm design and responsible data management, curation and dissemination. Students will participate in a course based research experience, develop tools and methods to help scholars think critically and engage the public in conversation about the role of Data Science in society.  See the CDS Collaborative Glossary for an example of public engagement created by the 2019 CDS student cohort.

This is a writing and research intensive course. In Spring 2022 this course will be cross-listed with ANTH 39200AB and WGSS 39000, Feminist Technoscience Studies.  This course can fullfill elective requirements for both the Digital Humanities and Science & Technology Studies undergraduate certificates.

  • HONR 39900, Technological Justice

In this course, students will study interdisciplinary approaches to technology ethics for responding to today’s pressing technological dilemmas in a range of contexts, from healthcare, mass incarceration, and airport security, to social media, smart cities, and space travel. Students will grapple with how historical and present-day inequalities, institutional environments, decision-making cultures, and regulatory systems impact the technological design process and distribution of technology’s risks and rewards in society. We will ask ourselves whose values and assumptions about the world get baked into technological designs; how technologies shape, and are actively shaped by, distributions of power in society; and how we might consider questions of fairness, equity, and justice when it comes to the work we do in the world. 

SPRING 2020

CRITICAL DATA STUDIES COURSES
  • ILS 49000/HONR 39500/ANTH 4900, Critical Data Studies Directed Research

Critical Data Studies (CDS) is an interdisciplinary field that addresses the ethical, legal, socio-cultural, epistemological and political aspects of data science, big data and digital infrastructure.  In this course, students apply theoretical and methodological frameworks drawn from critical data studies to directed team research and develop research and scholarly communication skills through faculty directed and community-engaged team research. For instance see the 2020 CDS Directed Research student abstracts and/or posters submitted to the 2020 Purdue Office of Undergraduate Research Conference.

This course meets the directed research credit requirement for the CDS-Data Mine Learning Community 2019-2020. The course is open to members of the CDS-Data Mine Learning Community. Registration by instructor permission only.

Fall 2019

CRITICAL DATA STUDIES COURSES
  • HONR 39900-020, Critical Data Studies

Critical Data Studies (CDS) is an interdisciplinary field that addresses the ethical, legal, socio-cultural, epistemological and political aspects of data science, big data and digital infrastructure. This course focuses on current topics in critical data studies scholarship. In this iteration of the course, particular emphasis will be given to democratic and participatory approaches to algorithm design and responsible data management, curation and dissemination. Students will develop tools and methods to help scholars think critically and engage the public in conversation about the role of Data Science in society.  For instance, see the CDS Collaborative Glossary created by the 2019 HONR 399 students.

This is a reading and writing intensive course. This course is open to 2019-2020 Critical Data Studies – Data Mine Learning Community Participants only.

  • ILS 595, Open Seminar: Critical Data Studies

This course offers the opportunity for students to engage with visiting scholars in the field of CDS and the larger campus community through the CDS's monthly Open Seminar Series.

This course is open to graduate students and undergraduates with permission of the instructor.  


 

OTHER COURSES OF INTEREST
  • ILS 230-001, Data Science and Society: Ethical, Legal, Social Issues

This course provides an introduction to Ethical, Legal, Social Issues (ELSI) in Data Science. Students will be introduced to interdisciplinary theoretical and practical frameworks that can aid in exploring the impact and role of Data Science in society. Simultaneous or previous enrollment in CS 24200 Introduction to Data Science or equivalent is a suggested prerequisite. 

This is a writing-intensive course. Students will work individually and on collaborative assignments.  

  • ILS 59500-009, Data Management and Curation for Qualitative Research

This course offers an interdisciplinary introduction to data management and curation with a focus on the use, value, and organization of data, materials, infrastructure, tools, and scholarly communication in qualitative research. The course will introduce literature concerning ethical and legal considerations of data management and curation, and will provide opportunity for hands-on digital, data literacy, and data manipulation skills development. 

This course is open to graduate students and upper division honors students across disciplines.  

  • ANTH 21000, Technology and Culture

This course explores the social dimensions of technology from the perspective of ancient, modern, and post-modern society. Topics include the origins of particular technologies; processes of technical development and dissemination; the politics of everyday artifacts; virtual identities; and technologies of the body. 

  • TECH 58100, Rethinking Technology and Ethics

From the role of algorithms in the criminal justice system to the use of biometrics and automation for public services, technology plays a key role in structuring social life. In many cases, technology actively reproduces systems of social and economic inequality. Thus, technological designs, practices, and cultural understandings of technology require rethinking.  

This course will center interdisciplinary and critical approaches to technology and ethics to consider how we might respond to today’s pressing technological dilemmas. We will ask ourselves how relations of power inform the ways technologies are produced and experienced, as well as how power shapes the ways we consider questions of fairness and equity. 

This course is open to graduate students and upper division honors students across disciplines.