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September 19, 2015

Message from 2014-2015 Co-Facilitators

A bit over a year ago, we (Lisa Nakamura, Liz Losh, and Sharon Irish) decided to serve as co-facilitators of FemTechNet. Anne Balsamo and Alex Juhasz, the co-founders and inaugural co-facilitators of FemTechNet (2012-14), set a very high bar! To guide and support this collective of amazing thinkers and doers has been heady, intense, fun, and hard. FemTechNet has grown quickly: we have about 400 people on our e-mailing list; nearly 800 on our Facebook page; and and over 100 people participated in our August 2015 workshop, from across about 12 countries and 12 time zones.

We added a Project Manager, the hyper-capable Ashley Walker, who moved us from chaos to less-chaos, and found a congenial and warm institutional grounding as a Research Program at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Research on Women and Gender. In response to growing public awareness about online misogyny and racism, we helped create more public resources for rapid response. We created an Advisory Board and continued to connect with sister organizations in the world of feminist technology activism and scholarship. We’re making new content–podcasts are in our future. We have very active committees providing context and material for at least 15 distributed open courses being offered this year. We have collectively written grants and articles, and edited books and journals. We raised money; attended meetings online and face-to-face; traveled to conferences around the world; joined panels; gave talks; received and sent gi-normous amounts of email; and experimented with a range of different digital platforms, although trust and safe spaces will always be a concern.

The Distributed Open Collaborative Conference being organized by Karen Keifer-Boyd and Marla Jaksch, for April 8-10, 2016, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, will be another highpoint to showcase the work of our wonderful FemTechNet learning communities in developing the next generation of feminist researchers.

Guess what? We are tired from all this activity! In the process of moving to new responsibilities ourselves, we drafted procedures for future shifts in leadership. We three are not leaving FemTechNet, not by a long shot: Each of us has ongoing committee and publishing projects related to the collective.

We applaud the Feminist Five who have stepped forward to co-facilitate this year!

Onward, Lisa, Liz, and Sharon

September 10, 2015

Collaborations in Feminism & Technology Sept-Dec 2015

TL Cowan

DOCC 2015: September – December

Collaborations in Feminist & Technology

Open Syllabus

Stay tuned here for updates on new activities including Video Dialogue Meet-Up Screenings, Town Hall Meetings, Pedagogy Workshops, and Working Sessions.

Questions?

Contact Ivette Bayo Urban and T.L. Cowan, co-chairs of the FemTechNet Pedagogy Projects Committee: FTNPedProCom [at] gmail [dot] com

Week 1: Bodies

Week of September 21, 2015

Bodies I

Video dialogy featuring Alondra Nelson and Jessie Daniels with Lisa Nakamura and Sidonie Smith. See video here.

Readings:

Alondra Nelson. “The Social Life of DNA.” Chronicle of Higher Education. 29 Aug. 2010. https://chronicle.com/article/The-Social-Life-of-DNA/124138/
Jessie Daniels. “Web 2.0, Healthcare Policy and Community Health Activism.” Policy and Politics for Nurses and Other Health Professionals. Eds. Donna M. Nikitas, et. al. Sudbury MA: Jones and Bartlett (2011): 277-285. https://www.academia.edu/6820282/Case_Study_Web_2.0_Healthcare_Policy_and_Community_Health_Activism

Making Bodies

Video dialogue with Skawennati and Heather Cassils moderated by T.L. Cowan. See video here.

Readings:

Christine L. Liao, “My Metamorphic Avatar Journey.” Visual Culture & Gender. 3 (2008). https://vcg.emitto.net/3vol/liao.pdf
Henry Jenkins. “It’s 2012. Do You Know Where Your Avatar Is?”: An Interview with Beth Coleman.

Part One, April 13, 2012: https://henryjenkins.org/2012/04/our_avatars_our_selves_an_inte.html
Part Two, April 19, 2012: https://henryjenkins.org/2012/04/its_2012_do_you_know_where_you.html

Watch artist talks brought to you by FemTechNet:

Skawennati at vimeo.com/77379737
Heather Cassils at vimeo.com/77556222

Bodies II

Discussion featuring video dialogue with Dorothy Roberts and Karen Flynn moderated by Sharon Irish.

Wk 2: Difference

Week of September 28, 2015

Video dialogue with Shu Lea Cheang and Kim Sawchuk moderated by Sara Diamond. See video here.

Readings:

Nyman, Micki (2013). Interpretation makes it real: Disability and subjectivity in biopics of three women artists. Disability Studies Quarterly, 33(4). Retrieved from https://dsq-sds.org/article/view/1777/3259

FemTechNet Roadshow Table of Contents

TL Cowan Uncategorized digital pedagogies, DOCC, FemTechNet, FTNRoadshow, online education, T.L. Cowan 0 Comments

FemTechNet Roadshow Blog Series

Over the past couple of months, about a dozen FemTechNet participants have presented work based on our research and teaching related to FemTechNet in a two-part FemTechNet Keywords Workshop at the CUNY Feminist Pedagogies Conference in April 2015, and at the Union for Democratic Communications Conference at the University of Toronto in May 2015. Since these gatherings brought together such divergent modes of FemTechNet engagement, we thought we’d collect and share this new work over the last two weeks of May, leading up to the 2015 FTN Summer Workshop and to the 2015-2016 season of FemTechNet’s Distributed Open Collaborative Course (the DOCC). For more information on this essay series, contact editor T.L. Cowan

Feminist by Jasmine Rault

Technology by Lisa Brundage and Emily Sherwood

Network by alex cruse

Distributed by Maria-Belén Ordóñez

Open by T.L. Cowan

Collaborative by K.J. Surkan

Course by Karen Keifer-Boyd

Governance: geek feminist critiques of the digital liberties movement by sky croeser

Improvisation by Melissa Meade and Cricket Keating

August 3, 2015

signal/noise: A FemTechNet conference on Feminist Pedagogy, Technology, Transdisciplinarity

amwalker 1 Comment

Welcome

Welcome to the first FTN conference – Signal/Noise: A FTN conference on Pedagogy, Technology, and Transdisciplinarity.

The title Signal/Noise draws our attention to the ways in which we communicate and collaborate with each other as artists, activists, and academics in a variety of contexts using a multitude of technologies. Whether this communication comes in the form of a series of beats, data vibrations, through parallel wiring or text messaging – the goal of the conference is to create a dynamic space where we might engage, reflect, and learn from this work, each other, and to further transmit and amplify it by imagining anew or (re)working our existing networks.

FemTechNet’s conference on Feminist Pedagogy, Technology, and Transdisciplinarity begins with four panels on Friday, which introduces the DOCC, explores issues of labor, and pedagogical possibilities through mapping and activism. On Saturday we will be making and working together in workshops on feminist mapping, writing, wikistorming, exquisite engendering, and hACTIVISM. The purpose of the workshops is to experience a range of DOCC pedagogical approaches based in DOCC pedagogical principles, and to engage in collaborations and create situated knowledge. Sunday’s dialogues will be activated by the signal/noise performative radnote dialogue of Lynnee Denise with Marla Jaksch, followed by modulated grooves of small group conversations brought back to the full circle of participation.

Thank you for your participation!

Thank you to all who contributed to making the conference come to life including sponsors at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender Studies, University of Michigan, the Department of Afroamerican & African Studies, Department of American Culture, Digital Studies, Digital Education & Innovation, Office of Research, Rackham Graduate School, and the Institute for the Humanities, Lisa Nakumura, Heidi Bennett, Stephanie Rosen, Heide Solbrig, Ann Wu, Veronica Parades, and all the presenters and participants.

Karen Keifer-Boyd and Marla Jaksch
Conference Coordinators

Registration

Please register at https://tinyurl.com/jou3y44

Registration is FREE although it is important to register so that we can plan food for lunches and receptions.

Schedule

For the comprehensive schedule, please visit Schedule.
Friday, April 8, 2016

02:10 PM - 03:00 PM | Introduction to FemTechNet's DOCC & Conference Overview
03:15 PM - 06:45 PM | Panel Presentations
07:00 PM - 09:00 PM | SIGNAL/NOISE Launch Party

Saturday, April 9, 2016

10:00 AM - 10:15 AM | Workshop Intro + Coffee
10:15 AM - 01:00 PM | Concurrent Workshops
01:00 PM - 02:00 PM | Lunch
02:00 PM - 05:00 PM | Concurrent Workshops
05:30 PM - 06:30 PM | DOCCs in Action
06:30 PM - 09:00 PM | Catered Reception + Music

Sunday, April 10, 2016

09:00 AM - 10:00 AM | Breakfast
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM | Organic Intellectualism: DJ Scholarship, Black Feminism and Erasure Resistance by Lynee Denise
11:30 AM - 12:30 PM | Dialogue Sessions
12:30 PM - 02:30 PM | Lunch Buffet + Presentations from Dialogue Sessions

Presenter Bios

Please visit the Presenters page.

Conference Venues

The conference will be held in the Michigan League, located in Central Campus just north of the Michigan Diag at 911 N. University Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48109. Saturday workshops and lunch will be held in the Hatcher Graduate Library and Shapiro Design Lab, on the first floor of the Shapiro Undergraduate Library (about a 6 minute walk from the Michigan League). There will also be online streaming and meeting rooms for various parts of the conference.

Physical Meeting Locations
See a campus map at campusinfo.umich.edu/campusmap/campus/central

Michigan League 911 N. University Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Hatcher Graduate Library 913 S. University Avenue Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Shapiro Design Lab 919 S University Ave, Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Online MEETING LOCATIONS

USTREAM Conference Streaming Most of the conference events, excluding workshops and dialogue sessions, will be streamed through this platform.

Blue Jeans Meeting Rooms Please consult the conference schedule and click on the "Join Virtually" link to various Blue Jeans meeting rooms for concurrent workshops and dialogue sessions.

Twitter #FemTechNet Please follow the conference on Twitter using the hashtag FemTechNet.

Accommodations

VisitAnnArbor.org has a complete list of hotels, B&Bs, and other accommodations in the area.

AirBNB

Getting to Ann Arbor, MI

Airport

Detroit Metropolitan International Airport (DTW) is only 20 miles from Ann Arbor, about a 45 minute drive (at the most). Major hubs are: Delta, Spirit, and US Air among others. For more information, call 734-AIR–PORT(247–7678).
Ground transportation between the airport & Ann Arbor:

AirRide: This shuttle runs 13 times during the day and stops at the downtown Ann Arbor Blake Transit Center (10 minute walk from campus) and the Kensington Court Hotel. A one way ticket on AirRide is $15, however, if a reservation is made in advance the fare is reduced to $12. Get more info & make reservations at MyAirRide.com.

Ann Arbor Metro Shuttle: $40 University of Michigan Rate for transportation between DTW and Ann Arbor. Must call to make reservations: (734) 507-9220.

MetroCabs provide convenient, on-demand transportation from the Airport to points throughout the region. Taxis are available 24/7 from each terminal’s Ground Transportation Center, and no advanced reservation is required.

A-1 Airport Cars: $55 flat rate between DTW and Ann Arbor. Reservations recommended. Contact info: 877-276-1335; info@a-1airportcars.com

Rental Cars at Detroit Metro Airport: Detroit Metropolitan Airport (DTW) is served by most major rental car agencies. All rental car shuttles pick-up and drop-off at each terminal’s Ground Transportation Center. To access your rental car agency, once you have claimed any checked luggage, follow terminal signs to Ground Transportation. Advanced reservations are strongly recommended, however, courtesy phones for contacting each agency are located in each terminal’s baggage claim and Ground Transportation Center. There are no rental car desks inside the terminals.

Train

The Ann Arbor Amtrak Station is served daily by Amtrak's Wolverine, which runs three times daily between Chicago and Detroit. Visit Amtrak’s website for more information: www.amtrak.com. The Amtrak Station is located at 325 Depot Street within the city of Ann Arbor, 0.8 mile from central campus.

Bus

Greyhound: The Greyhound Station is located in downtown Ann Arbor at 115 E. William Street. See the Greyhound site for scheduling and tickets.

Megabus: This station is located on the University of Michigan’s campus at the State Street Commuter Parking lot. Tickets can be purchased at the Megabus site.

Directions to the Michigan League

Michigan League
911 N. University Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48109

The Michigan League is located in Central Campus just north of the Michigan Diag. View the League on a campus map, or get directions via Google Maps and MapQuest. Driving Directions here.

From Detroit and Metro Airport (heading West) - Via I-94 (Ford Freeway)
Take State Street Exit 177. Turn right (north). Continue on State Street approximately 2 miles to the main campus area. Turn right onto North University, which is one block past the Michigan Union. The Michigan League is on your left at the corner of North University and Fletcher Street.

From Chicago (heading East) - Via I-94 (Ford Freeway)
Take State Street Exit 177. Turn left (north). Continue on State Street approximately 2 miles to the main campus area. Turn right onto North University, which is one block past the Michigan Union. The Michigan League is on your left at the corner of North University and Fletcher Street.

From Ohio (heading North) - Via I-75/US-23
Take Washtenaw-Ann Arbor Exit 37B and turn right (west) onto Washtenaw. Where Stadium Blvd and Washtenaw split (approximately 2-3 miles), stay to the right on Washtenaw following the "Hospital" signs. Turn left at Hill Street (you'll see "The Rock"). Continue down Hill Street (campus buildings will be on your right). Turn right on State Street. Go three blocks. Turn right on North University. The Michigan League is on your left at the corner of North University Street and Fletcher Street.

From Northern MI (heading South) -Via I-75/US-23
Take US-23 South to M-14 West. Take Exit #3, "Downtown Ann Arbor," which will become Main Street. Follow Main Street to Huron Street. Turn left at Huron Street. Continue down Huron to State St. Turn right on State Street. Turn left on North University. The Michigan League is on your left at the corner of North University Street and Fletcher Street.

From Northwest Suburbs - I-275/I-696 (W.P. Ruether Freeway)
Take I-696 to I-275 South to M-14 West. Follow M-14 West signs closely. Take Exit #3, "Downtown Ann Arbor," which turns into Main Street. Follow Main Street to Huron Street. Turn left onto Huron Street. Continue on Huron until State Street intersects. Turn right on State Street. Turn left on North University Street. The Michigan League is on your left at the corner of North University Street and Fletcher Street.

From Parts of Detroit, Redford, M-14, Plymouth and Canton - I-96 (also called the Jeffries Freeway)
Take I-96 to M-14 West. Follow M-14 West signs closely. Take Exit #3, "Downtown Ann Arbor," which turns into Main Street. Follow Main Street to Huron Street. Turn left on Huron Street until State Street intersects. Turn right on State Street. Turn left on North University Street. The Michigan League is on your left at the corner of North University Street and Fletcher Street.

From Lansing - I-96 (also called the Jeffries Freeway)
Take I-96 to US-23 South. Drive on US-23 South to M-14 West (Downtown Ann Arbor) Exit. Take Exit and drive about a mile to Exit 3, also marked "Downtown." Take exit ramp, which turns into Main Street. Follow Main Street to Huron Street. Turn left on Huron Street until State Street intersects. Turn right on State Street. Turn left on North University. The Michigan League is on your left at the corner of North University and Fletcher Street.

Additional Resources

Interactive Campus Map

Campus Information Center Maps & Directions

Campus Information Center Building Search

VisitAnnArbor.org

Parking at the University of Michigan

Friday & Saturday

Parking for Michigan League, Hatcher & Shapiro Libraries Parking is extremely limited near the U-M campus. There is no free parking on Friday or Saturday near campus.
Ann Arbor Public Transportation Park & Ride Lots (free parking + paid bus fare)

Free parking in commuter lots approximately 2 miles from campus.

Please check the AATA trip planner or Google Maps to find out the bus schedule that fits your needs.

Ann Arbor Public Buses:

Ann Arbor Transportation Authority (AATA) regular bus fare is $1.50 per trip. You can pay with cash, bus pass or tokens.

Passes & tokens are available at the downtown AATA Blake Transit Center and online.

Check bus routes and schedules.

Campus Buses (free to ride):

U-M Buses are big and blue. They go all over campus.

The bus system is free to the general public

Operating hours are from 5:00 AM to about 2:30 AM weekdays (7:00 AM to about 3:00 AM weekends).

Visit the Parking and Transportation Services website for information on all campus buses.

Paid Parking

Metered street parking:

In effect Mondays - Saturdays from 8am-6pm on surrounding streets for $1.60/hour

Maps of metered and structure parking on the Ann Arbor DDA's website.

Paid parking structures:

6-10 minute walk of central campus

The Forest Avenue Parking Structure is the closest to the libraries.

Liberty Square or Maynard structures are the closest public structures, within a few blocks of central campus. The rate is $1.20 per hour.

University Visitor parking is available on Central Campus at the Palmer Drive structure located on Palmer Drive just west of Washtenaw Avenue. The visitor parking rate is $0.75 per half hour. (Spaces are limited.)

Sunday
Parking is FREE in Ann Arbor (street parking and structures)!!
Resources

The U-M Parking and Transportation Services site provides a comprehensive source for parking options, as well as bus routes and other transportation information.

PDF Map of Central Campus from the U-M campus parking office which shows the nearby structures. Visitor Parking is in RED.

Ann Arbor & Campus Transportation

Getting Around Ann Arbor (courtesy: VisitAnnArbor.org)

Ann Arbor’s downtown area - including the University of Michigan’s campus - are known for being very walkable, but for those looking to make up time or get further out of the city, we have many options that are likely to suit your needs:

Public Bus System - The Ride
Operated by the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority, ‘The Ride’ is a top-notch public transit system, offering over 1500 stops in Washtenaw County. Fare is $1.50 per person. Exact change is needed. Passes are available at the downtown AATA Blake Transit Center and online. Check bus routes and schedules.Visit TheRide.org for more information.

Taxi
There are over 20 taxi cab service providers in Ann Arbor. You will need to CALL for pickup within 5-15 minutes. See the full list.

Car Rental
If you need to rent a car during your visit to the Ann Arbor area, there are several companies that can assist you. Many have multiple locations so you can get exactly what you need, where you need it. For a full list of rental car agencies in the area, click here.

Zipcar
Zipcar is a national car-sharing service that allows you to reserve and rent cars by the hour or day without the hassle of a traditional car rental. Cars are located all around Ann Arbor. Zipcar members can reserve cars online then swipe their card at the vehicle to unlock doors. Gas and insurance are included. See Zipcar map for locations.

Uber
It exists in Ann Arbor. You know what this is.

Getting Around Campus

Walk
The University of Michigan’s Central Campus is large but easily walkable. Conference venues are very proximate, about 0.3 mile apart (6 minute walk). View an interactive campus map here: https://campusinfo.umich.edu/campusmap

Bike
Arbor Bike - Bike share system intended for short trips around town. Members have access to an unlimited number for 60 minute trips while their membership is active. As long as each trip is kept under 60 minutes, no additional fees, outside of the initial membership fee, are incurred.

Anyone over the age of 18 with a valid credit card or debit card can become an ArborBike member.

Fees & Sign up:

1-day............ sold at any ArborBike kiosk & online - $6

1-month....... sold online - $10

1-year...........sold online - $65

Campus Buses (free to ride!)

U-M Buses are big and blue. They go all over campus. The University's 12 bus routes carry approximately 7.2 million passengers per year. The bus system is free to the general public, and generally operates from about 5:00 AM to about 2:30 AM weekdays (7:00 AM to about 3:00 AM weekends), with reduced hours during spring/summer terms and on holidays.

Visit the Parking and Transportation Services website for information on all campus buses.

Childcare

The University of Michigan Work-Life Resource Center provides information and options for childcare services in Ann Arbor.
Can’t find what you need? Contact Amy Szczepanski, Community Child Care Resources/ Campus Child Care Homes Network Manager, University of Michigan Work-Life Resource Center; (734) 763-9379.

Wireless Access

For University of Michigan students, faculty & staff

MWireless is the most secure WiFi network and should be used by all U-M faculty, staff, students. Login required.

For Guests

MGuest is free wireless network provided for University of Michigan visitors. It is open and insecure, no encryption is provided by the network. It is available in most campus buildings, including conference venues.

eduroam is a secured WiFi network service that allows students, staff, and faculty to use their home institution's WiFi credentials without having to set up a guest account. Check if your home institution participates: https://www.eduroam.us/institutions_list.

This conference is sponsored by the Institute for Research on Women and Gender Studies, University of Michigan, with support from the Department of Afroamerican & African Studies, Department of American Culture, Digital Studies, Digital Education & Innovation, Office of Research, Rackham Graduate School, and the Institute for the Humanities.

July 21, 2015

keyword videos

Hong-An Wu 1 Comment

A Keyword Video is a short, DIY video production project, using easily available digital tools (or apps) of your choice, made alone or in teams, that describes a word of the video-maker’s choice from a feminist stand-point, responds to earlier videos, and asks for response from the FemTechNet community.

Learning Objectives

Learn hands-on, applied skills in video production
Make feminist theoretical terms, ideas, and arguments approachable, accessible, and/or available in other formats, vernaculars, and to new audiences
Connect theories and practices of feminism along key themes
Virtually present your ideas to others involved in the DOCC2013
Participate actively and with increased sophistication through the use of social media and other online tools

Previous Student Work

Keyword Videos Channel on FemTechNet Vimeo
All approved previous keyword videos can be found on the “Keyword Videos” channel at the FemTechNet Vimeo account.

Keyword Videos from DOCC 2013 Students
Posted in January 2014, this post by Sharon Irish details the keyword videos created during the 2013-2014 iteration of the DOCC. Keywords included: Labor, Women’s College, Directioners, Maps, Bodies, and a “CNS” Interview.

Beta Keyword Videos
This page explains why Vimeo was chosen to share the Keyword Videos. It also provides reflections on Keyword Videos created in the Beta course at Pitzer College.

Keyword Videos on Internet Archive
You can also find many Keyword Videos here on the Internet Archive.

Resources

A.J. Strout has assembled some excellent guides for how to make a Keyword Video. The pages include suggestions for equipment, editing platform, and genre in creating a Keyword Video. Materials also present helpful detailed instructions and recommendations on how to conceptualize, write, perform, record and edit a Keyword Video. Guidelines for conditions of inclusion in the FemTechNet Keyword Video Channel are also provided.

Making a Keyword Video
A.J. Strout (2013) This document provides the following information: where to upload your video (more info about that here); guidelines for approval; themes to include in your video; suggestions on how to begin and end your video; links to downloadable templates, title cards and logos; five important production tips (about story, sound, video equipment, look, and rehearsal).

Making Keyword Videos: Details, Instructions, Resources
This document contains overlap with the briefer document above, but provides a fuller description of each. Covering in more detail: different genres of potential keyword videos, here called video templates; a discussion of ethics, which includes links to collections with materials licensed for use; writing the script; pre-production questions to consider in planning; production considerations for equipment and setup, image and sound; production and video styles to consider in creating your keyword video. The document also contains a detailed list of keywords and definitions in videography (e.g. “b-roll,” “headroom,” “f-stop”). Lastly, the document also covers areas of post-production to consider, including: editing, color balance, levels and brightness/ contrast, transitions, sound levels and design.

Keyword Videos on Vimeo
Instructions on how to join Vimeo and join the FemTechNet group there.

“What is a Keyword?” at University of Pittsburgh’s Keywords Project (2011-13)
Helpful entry at Keywords Project at University of Pittsburgh that addresses these topics: historical changes of meaning of ‘keyword;’ keywords and social thinking; the word ‘keyword;’ building on Raymond Williams’ Keywords; history of words and contestation of their meanings; criteria regarding which words may be ‘keywords.’

FemTechNet Video Editing Materials
This helpful page lists contains links to intro logo animations, footer logos, splash marquees, title cards and much more.

July 21, 2015

object making/exchange

Hong-An Wu 0 Comments

Developed by Anca Birzescu and Radhika Gajjala for Spring 2014 Graduate and Undergraduate classes taught by Radhika Gajjala at BGSU.

Learning Objectives

Experiment with hands-on, applied skills outside of traditional academic writing
Make feminist theoretical terms, ideas, and arguments approachable, accessible, and/or available in other formats, vernaculars, and to new audiences
Connect theories and practices of feminism along key themes
Materially and then also virtually present your ideas, interpretations, critiques to others involved in the DOCC2013
Understand “value” outside present day post-industrial capitalistic frameworks
Create community through gift giving

Project Stages Summary

A.Create (alone or in group)

B.Display

C.Exchange/Barter

A. For this final project, you are going to embark on an exciting creative practice/theory-oriented process in which you are going to produce a DIY (Do-It-Yourself) object or craft that materializes your response to, critique or understanding of a feminist interpretation of one of 10 course themes, to be made alone or in groups after discussion and approval of instructor. Only your creativity and inspiration are the limit for the artifact you create. In the past, students’ artifact choices ran the gamut from carpentry, knitting, and lego to photo collages, film strips objects and wired sculptures.

B. Take this artifact production process as a challenge to represent the material outside of the digital and outside of words. However, once you build your object, you will have to present/display it digitally as well. More specifically, you will create a digital expression–of your own choice– of the built object, where you will articulate your critical perspective on the link between the object and the chosen concept/ course theme. For instance, you can upload/post photos or a video recording of the artifact on different online venues such as a website, facebook, vimeo, blogs and so forth post.

C. After you present/display the material objects online, you will next proceeded to a “gift exchange” activity where you will think critically about VALUE. Therefore, while you are producers of such DIY objects, you are also going to become consumers as you are going to assess/describe items created by other colleagues and thenexchange/barter items. You will thus swap your object with another class participant in relation to their description of your own item’s value. This final stage of your project is actually a bidding process where you are going to give your artifact away and where you will write each other explaining why the built objects had value. The students who made the highest bid will acquire the respective artifacts.

Previous Student Work

See items made by Pitzer/BGSU in the Beta DOCC 2012-2013 here.

See items made at Pitzer for the DOCC 2013-2014 here.

July 21, 2015

community participation via blog commenting

Hong-An Wu 1 Comment

Bonnie Nardi once observed that “the modal number of comments in individually authored blogs has been found to be zero,” which was a theme picked up in Geert Lovink’s book Zero Comments.

The Community Participation via Blog Commenting assignment asks students to make a substantive comment on an external blog posting that addresses issues relevant to this course and to observe the principles of “generosity,” “confidence,” “humility,” “flexibility,” and “integrity” from Anne Balsamo’s Designing Culture: The Technological Imagination at Work (2011, p. 163). Blogging sites with relevant blog posts include HASTAC,CASTAC, Media Praxis, Planned Obsolescence, and Difference Engines.

Learning Objectives

Students will identify a network of admired, like-minded researchers outside of the class who are discussing an issue of concern. This issue should be relevant to course discussions, readings, and assignments, but it should also speak to the personal interests and situated experiences of the student who is commenting.
Students will formulate a rhetorical strategy for being respectfully in dialogue with members of this network by commenting appropriately on a blog.
Students will increase their understanding that some forms of debate can foster aggression, territorial feelings, or defensive reactions that make future collaboration unlikely. (This objective can also be served by showing examples of anti-feminist comments on feminist blogs.)
Students will translate and condense their academic ideas for presentation to a public audience.

Previous Student Work

Here is one example within the suggested 200-250 word limit that connects feminist theory to disability studies: https://hastac.org/blogs/merylalper/2013/02/14/connecting-disability-%E2%80%9Cconnected-learning%E2%80%9D#comment-21708

July 21, 2015

feminist mapping

Hong-An Wu 0 Comments

Feminist mapping is a way to affect social change and aligns with Actor Network Theory. Actor Network Theory (ANT), a critical social theory lens, is a process philosophy not based in cause and effect notions, but instead looks for a sociology of associations, that is, knowledge as mediated or mutually articulated in interactions between networks of actors. The term actors refer to human and non-human mediators in an action or event. An actor-network approach explores social effects, whatever their material form, to begin to answer ‘how’ questions about structure, power and organization. Actor network theory, therefore, implies a mapping methodology.

Project Prompts

Select a product you use/wear/see—create a visual map that traces its social, environmental, political, & health performance. Provide a key code for the map. Good Guide and Skin Deep are good resources to begin product mapping.
Or select a trope, code, lived experience, privilege, concept, bias, awareness, or value and use Google maps, video, NVIVO, or other media to set up an interactive visual map in which others can contribute to the mapping of knowledge and experiences

Learning Objectives

Learn hands-on, applied skills utilizing mapping techniques and other visibility mechanisms to make the invisible visible
Make feminist theoretical terms, ideas, and arguments approachable, accessible, and/or available in other formats, vernaculars, and to new audiences
Connect theories and practices of feminism along key themes
Present your analysis to others to support collective mobilization

Examples of Feminist Mapping Projects

Situated Knowledge Map

The FemTechNet Situated Knowledges Map is an experiment in thinking about the relationship between space, place, mobility and knowledge production and circulation. By marking locations of significance to ourselves, we hope to get a sense of where we are coming from across the FemTechNet world. For detailed description and ways to participate, visit here.

Social Justice Activism through Feminist Arts-based Research

Two examples from Karen Keifer-Boyd’s 2012 course Social Justice Activism through Feminist Arts-based Research at Penn State are available at https://cyberhouse.arted.psu.edu/activism/

Have you ever thought about the streets name? Where do the names come from, who is honored by naming streets or places with a certain name? Add to Monika Skazedonig’s map of gender and race in relation to place at https://g.co/maps/h9acm
Dennis De La Gala visualized the global market of weapon dealing at https://maps.google.at/maps/ms?msid=206638824373747411924.0004bffc973ef3492e41a&msa=0

Others

Mapping Women’s Lives: A Digital Cartographies Project showcases collaborative arts-based research projects initiated by the Spring 2011 Global Perspectives on Women students of Janell Hobson at the University of Albany and expanded by Hobson for this site. These projects use Google maps, video ethnography, and other media. Hobson is the author of Body as Evidence: Mediating Race, Globalizing Gender (SUNY Press, 2012) andVenus in the Dark: Blackness and Beauty in Popular Culture (Routledge, 2005).

Resources

What is Missing?

Maya Lin Studio has created a digital memorial “not as a singular static object, but as a work that can exist in multiple forms and in multiple sites simultaneously.” Envisioned and developed by Maya Lin, the What is Missing? Foundation’s mission is to create, through science-based artworks, an awareness of the disappearance of species due primarily to habitat degradation and loss. https://whatismissing.net/#/home

HarassMap

Consciousness-raising and activism efforts that attempt to end violence against women via social media have the potential to lead to collective action and a collective solution when shared personal issues are understood to be political in nature and those who care unite and take action in hopes of creating positive socio-cultural change. For example, HarassMap begun in 2009 at https://harassmap.org/en/what-we-do/the-map/ and is a website that enables women worldwide to anonymously report acts of sexual harassment via text message and other ways to report. Harassment locations are marked on the website and local community outreach efforts are coordinated where harassment occurs (Human Rights First, 2012). (See alsoHollaBack!)

GenderArtNet

GenderArtNet is an experimental mapping project exploring the interrelation of gender, ethnicity, race, class and sexualities in contemporary Europe. Concept and development by Bettina Knaup in cooperation with Maria Ptqk and the media art organisation Constant vzw, Brussels.https://genderartnet.constantvzw.be/emerge/

Women on the Map!

Women on the Map! was launched on March 8, 2013 for International Women’s Day. The project aims to connect women across continents, creating a powerful visual representation of the vast, change-making impact women have on our world. https://www.imow.org/economica/stories/map

July 21, 2015

feminist wiki-storming

Hong-An Wu 8 Comments

Why Teach with Wikipedia?

There are a number of ways that having students work on Wikipedia pages as part of a class can support educational goals. It offers a chance for research and writing to be experienced as a collaborative enterprise as well as an individual activity. It deepens students’ understanding of social media, and it helps them to become more critical thinkers as they engage with the Wikipedia community and its evolving values. It offers them a chance to be an active part of knowledge dissemination and the ongoing public conversation over what constitutes knowledge. Perhaps most crucially, it allows students to take the research and writing process all the way to the publication stage, something that is not normally possible within a single quarter or semester. The awareness that their pages will be visible to a worldwide audience—and that their entries are likely to be critiqued in various ways by the Wikipedia community of editors— tends to raise the bar for student achievement. To date, Wikipedia editing has been successfully integrated into a wide range of fields, from English to Science & Technology Studies to Art.

What can Teaching with Wikipedia Offer Classes about Feminism?

Faculty teaching courses about feminism, or that touch on feminist issues, find that having students engage with Wikipedia can develop their critical awareness in several ways. Fruitful discussions of gender bias (as well as other forms of bias) can develop from close analysis of Wikipedia entries, subject areas, and taxonomies, as well as patterns of language use and social interaction on the site. Students who take the responsibility to create or edit Wikipedia pages where shortcomings have been identified make the crucial step from observer to shaper of the public discourse.

What Kinds of Wikipedia Assignments are There?

One common approach is to have students add missing items to Wikipedia, such as biographies of notable women or topical entries related to gender or feminism in some way. While we see the need for traditional Wikipedia assignments that focus on adding such content to Wikipedia, we also want to encourage professors to develop assignments that encourage students to learn about the processes on Wikipedia that are responsible for perpetuating some of the gender bias inherent in traditional encyclopedias and culture at large. Please see below for approaches to creating assignments and links to existing assignment examples.

Wikistorming Learning Objectives

In summary, among the possible learning objectives for Wikistorming assignments and projects are the following:

Students learn to write for diverse, global audiences
Students learn information literacy for the digital age
Students develop the research and writing skills to contribute to the world’s largest encyclopedia
Students contribute to the effort to create a more equitable, inviting knowledge-space
Students learn about how knowledge is produced and consumed, becoming better critical thinkers
Students become an integral part of a knowledge-building community
Students learn about engaging in principled intellectual discussion in the public sphere
Students gain skills in collaborative writing

Approaches to Teaching with Wikipedia

There are a plethora of ways that one might teach with Wikipedia. Below are a couple of starting points, which are by no means exhaustive. We have offered more details on kinds of assignments that the Wikistorming Committee has discussed or that have been taught by other FemTechNet members in the Sample Wikipedia Assignments page.

Developing critical readings and understanding the topics/issues/people for which Wikipedia articles exist While Wikipedia is much larger than any previous encyclopedia because it is not limited by the printed page, not every topic has an article and many are excluded. Wikipedia has a “notability” threshold that topics must reach to be included. Understanding the complex criteria that make up this policy and the debates that surround it is a key part of understanding Wikipedia.
Identifying areas for new article creation or article expansion Once students have a sense of the notability threshold, they can identify areas in which to propose new articles or expand existing content. This process might also include discussions of what doesn’t rise to the level of notable and a critical appraisal of how that impacts content and what kinds of dependencies within the resource are thereby suggested.
Survey existing debates to understand how the editorial community works The editorial community of Wikipedia consists of many different kinds of editors and there are robust conversations regarding the structure, processes, and content of Wikipedia. Introduce students to the concept of the “Talk Page” and then encourage them to learn from discussions and participate.
Participate in the content creation One of the best ways to understand how Wikipedia works is to participate in content creation. This can range from small scale editing to the creation of articles or projects. See the sample assignments for ideas on how to get started.
Participate in the peer review process Wikipedia depends not only on the work of editors for content creation, but also for peer review of existing articles and support of other editors. Students can join in this critical review process.

Creating Assignments

There are a number of ways to approach developing assignments and events for Wikistorming efforts. Whatever you choose, we recommend that you consult someone who has done such an assignment or event before and/or poke around on Wikipedia yourself so that you have a good sense of the possible areas of confusion and pitfalls. The Wikipedia Education Program has Campus Ambassadors and Online Ambassadors that can help you with your classes and Wikipedia:GLAM can help you if you are working on events with cultural institutions. Please also see more information on Types of Wikipedia Work from FemTechNet.

Example of Five Wikistorming Projects

For the Fall of 2013, DOCC professors and students worked on the following five projects:

Adding feminist scholarship to already existing content on Wikipedia

Creating and expanding articles on women who played and are playing important roles in history and current events

Making Wikipedia readers and editors more aware of the systemic gender bias inherent in the encyclopedia’s structure

Encouraging feminists, academics, and activists to contribute to Wikipedia and help revolutionize its culture

Participating in Wikipedia’s processes

By adding articles and information about women and feminist scholarship, we are making certain women and their contributions to culture are remembered and acknowledged in the digital landscape. By becoming contributors to Wikipedia, we are helping change the demographics of Wikipedia’s editor-base in order to create a more equitable, inviting space. These projects emphasize the collaborative nature of both Wikipedia and feminist projects – they do not have to be ones in which a professor dictates all of the rules and then gives a grade. We want to encourage professors and students to learn together, contribute together, and become part of the larger Wikipedia community. As such, we have created a hub of activity at WikiProject Feminism on Wikipedia, an open tasks list, that lists article related to these goals very broadly. If you are looking for areas to contribute, this is a good place to start.

Sample assignments developed by instructors who are already working with Wikipedia in their classes are linked below.

Resources

From Members of FemTechNet:

- - How to Use Wikipedia as a Teaching Tool: Adrianne Wadewitz
  - Sample Wikipedia Assignments

Essential Wikipedia Resources:

From the FemTechNet Vimeo Channel:

- - Editing on Wikipedia

July 21, 2015

video dialogues

Hong-An Wu 1 Comment

A conference at Brown University that launched the video dialogues.
L to R, back row: Kara Keeling, Wendy Chun, Faith Wilding; L to R, front row: Maria Fernandez, Anne Balsamo, Lisa Nakamura

Dialogue and interchange are key aspects of FemTechNet. During 2012-2013, we produced at least four dialogues, on Labor, Race, Sexualities, and Machine. The Dialogues are on the FemTechNet Vimeo channel as well as hosted on a site that enables captions with transcripts, here. Other topics include: Archive, Wikistorming, Bodies, Difference, Place, Systems, Transformations, and Games.

Each Video Dialogue features two prominent feminist scholars/artists/practitioners in conversation about a topic. The topics for the Video Dialogues were “community-sourced” based on discussions among FemTechNet participants in July-Sept 2012.

Topics discussed in each Video Dialogue are intentionally broad and should be understood as a starting point for further discussion among DOCC participants.

Ready for filming the video dialogue on Bodies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. L to R: Dorothy Roberts, Karen Flynn, and Sharon Irish

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