Spring '22 Course Offerings
This spring, the Ethics Lab team will be offering three courses—Introduction to Tech, Ethics, & Society; Data Ethics; and Data & the Politics of Evidence. Below are more details on each class, along with course registration numbers (CRNs) for students interested in registering.
Introduction to Tech, Ethics, & Society (PHIL-135)
Taught by: Ethics Lab Director Maggie Little
Class meets Mondays and Wednesdays, 11:00 am - 12:15 pm
Course Registration Number (CRN): 40824
Technology from AI to Big Data is transforming the way we live, communicate, work, and relate. This course will explore the social implications and ethical responsibilities of digital/data tech.
“We are so excited that Georgetown is launching a new suite of undergraduate programs at the intersection of tech, ethics, and society. Starting in the fall of 2022, there will be a new major that will integrate technical computer science with issues in the ethical, legal, social implications, and a new interdisciplinary minor, open to any undergraduate at Georgetown, on tech's ethical, legal, and social repercussions. This class can be taken by anybody, but it is designed to be an onboarding class for the new major and minor. This and other courses will be offered next year, with input from faculty across the University who will run design jams with students and practitioners for a collaborative design process for the new major and minor.” — Director Maggie Little
Data Ethics (PHIL-108)
Taught by: Ethics Lab Postdoctoral Fellow Joel de Lara
Class meets Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:00 am - 12:15 pm
Course Registration Number (CRN): 42250
What are data? What kind of evidence do data provide? What responsibilities do we have as individuals, groups, and societies when it comes to how data are generated, interpreted, and used? When and why should we rely upon data to inform our ethical and political decisions? And what might data justice look like?
Across the private and public sectors, analyses of increasingly big data sets are rolled out in support of everything from product design to policy development. Central to the appeal of data is the idea that they can provide ‘objective’ evidence to guide and improve decisions we make in private and public life—everything from what car to buy to how to deal with a global health pandemic to saving our environment. Yet, attendant to the promise of data are a host of significant ethical and social questions and challenges.
In this course, students will be introduced to data ethics through various philosophical lenses—from normative and applied ethics to political philosophy, social epistemology, critical race theory, and feminist philosophy. We will grapple throughout with contemporary case studies largely within the US and in particular, in relation to the topics of climate change, racial reckoning and indigeneity, and gender, sexuality, and patriarchy.
Data & the Politics of Evidence (CCTP 729-01)
Taught by: Ethics Lab Fellows Meg Leta Jones and danah boyd
Class meets Wednesdays, 2:00 pm - 4:30 pm
Course Registration Number (CRN): 42710
Co-taught by Visiting Distinguished Professor danah boyd, this course integrates literature from STS, sociology, and critical data studies to examine the work of data and algorithms in organizational contexts, with a particular eye to the ecosystem of U.S. federal statistics. Students will learn why data and algorithms are never neutral and, thus, how to detect when data and algorithms are being politicized, manipulated, and weaponized. Moving beyond the ideals of ethics, students will need to grapple with how ethical commitments get enacted through data practices and technical systems, as well as the policies that govern them. Students can expect to come away from this class with a deeper appreciation for the complexity of technocratic dreams of evidence-based policymaking.
Note: This course requires instructor approval. Please contact Prof. Meg Jones for permission to register.