April 15, 2016
Technology & Social Change Group (TASCHA) alum & current assistant professor at University of Michigan Joyojeet Pal will be back in Seattle for a few days in April. While he’s here, he will be giving a talk about uses of social media in “Global South” politics. Save the date, and see below for more details. We hope you’ll join us for this brown bag lunch discussion!
November 18, 2014
I will soon be travelling to Myanmar as part of the project, Information Strategies for Societies in Transition, to encourage better understanding and use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) in the rapidly developing country. Formerly known as Burma, it is undergoing an incredible political, social and economic transition after years of authoritarian rule.
August 6, 2014
TASCHA researcher Jessica Beyer has a new book out, Expect Us: Online Communities and Political Mobilization, published by Oxford University Press. People use online social forums for all sorts of reasons, including political conversations, regardless of the site’s main purpose. But what leads some of these people to take their online political activity into the offline world of activism? In her book, Jessica looks at political consciousness and action in four communities, each born out of chaotic online social spaces that millions of individuals enter, spend time in, and exit moment by moment: Anonymous (4chan), IGN, World of Warcraft, and The Pirate Bay.
February 13, 2014
Myanmar (Burma) has spent decades under authoritarian rule. It was isolated politically and economically from the rest of the world and home to one of the world’s longest civil wars. In the last few years, Myanmar has begun a transformation from authoritarian to democratic rule, from economic isolation and underdevelopment to an integrated market economy, and from war to peace. Come hear Myanmar expert and Jackson School of International Studies Professor Mary Callahan speak about her experiences living, researching, and working in Myanmar as this process has unfolded. She will also discuss a new USAID/Microsoft-supported information literacy project, housed in the Jackson School and initiated in collaboration with Burmese civil society groups and the Information School’s Technology & Social Change Group (more details on the project coming soon!).
