Application Narrative for the development and teaching of
“Feminist Dialogues on Technology” (Spring 2013)
a massively distributed collaborative learning forum and archive
Alexandra Juhasz, Pitzer Media Studies
Anne Balsamo, Professor, USC Annenberg & School of Cinematic Arts;
Director of Learning, Annenberg Innovation Lab
Introduction: We have been talking privately about the state of feminism and
technology studies around the world. Anne attended an informative gathering of
international scholars at the University of Sydney last year that helped her appreciate the
imperative for creating a sustainable international network in the field to help feminist
science/technology scholars keep in contact about new research, new projects, and
opportunities. In 2010, Alex was a keynote speaker at a symposium in Canada, "Sex,
Money, Media,1 an inspiring forum that raised important issues about the waning
institutional status of feminist technology work even as we participate individually in
larger numbers and with greater innovation. Having both recently published new work
that not only addresses topics of feminism and technology but also engages new
technologies of scholarship2 and activism,3 we are acutely aware, from our institutional
homes in Southern California, of how difficult it is to build and sustain larger ongoing
conversations and communities around this work.
Where are the feminist networks for the dissemination of research, design, and
scholarship on technology? Everywhere and nowhere! As was true for the first
generation of feminist scholars who did research, design, and scholarship on technology
and feminism, the second generation of scholars and researchers are scattered and
isolated across the world, situated in different disciplinary and institutional contexts. We
believe that technology can allow for this highly local situation to become a global
network and archive. In the Spring of 2013, we hope to offer, with Mellon support, the
first version of a massively distributed collaborative learning forum and archive on
the topic of feminism and technology. The course will be co-sponsored by Pitzer College
and USC, but will be taught at collaborating universities around the world. The course
will cover 14 topics over 14 weeks. Each topic will be taught by at minimum two
international leaders in the field who will present at their local institution, and who will
be watched by students both at home and around the world. Each dialogue will be
recorded and archived. Our innovative course allows for local learning at each place
where the course will be taught, and global interaction at all of its many hubs.
The range of topics and political investments is broad (and will be the subject of our first
planning meeting, tentatively planned for April 2012), but includes:
http://www.sfu.ca/gsws/News/SexMoneyMedia/index.html
Anne Balsamo, Designing Culture: The Technological Imagination at Work (Duke,
2010) www.designgingculture.net
3 Alexandra Juhasz, Learning from YouTube (MIT Press, 2011):
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=12596.
1
2





the development of new theories of technology and philosophical approaches
to science, epistemology, and pedagogy;
sociological and economic issues of labor, employment, national policies, and
programs of technology innovation;
issues of identity, subjectivity, sexuality, performance, and modes of expression;
infrastructural issues such as education, training, professional networking, and
industry transformations;
political projects of social revolution, cultural design, technology accessibility,
workplace conditions, and violence to human bodies.
The feminist scholarship about these topics is lively, scattered, and inadequately
archived. Understanding about the wide range of work in feminist science and technology
studies is not reproduced in educational curricula, course syllabi, digital archives, and online community forums. We are certain that the time has come for a bold initiative that
manifests the histories and continued relevance of feminist work in technology.
Grant Requests: Hence we are seeking funding from the Mellon Grant on local/global
initiatives to plan this innovative course. There are many discussions about details
required to plan, facilitate, and establish the technological and institutional infrastructure
for such a radical endeavor. We are first requesting $7000 (from the Global-Local
Curricular Development Grant) to host a daylong meeting in Los Angeles with ten top
international and national leaders in this field. At this meeting, we will activate our
local/international conversation about the course: choosing the fourteen course topics and
most important global participants. We are hoping to use grant funding to sponsor a small
invite-only initial day of brainstorming bringing together thought leaders across domains
of feminist technology work.
First Meeting Proposed Participants
1) Nelly Oudshoom, professor of Technology Dynamics and Health Care at the
University of Twente, the Netherlands
2) Sara Diamond, President, Ontario College of Art and Design, Canada
3) Judy Wacjman, Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and
Political Science, UK
4) Alex Juhasz
5) Anne Balsamo
6) Beth Coleman, Assistant Professor of Writing and New Media in the Program in
Writing and Humanistic Studies and Comparative Media, MIT
7) Lisa Cartwright, Professor of Communication and Science Studies Affiliated
Faculty in Critical Gender Studies, UCSD
8) Lisa Nakamura, Director of the Asian American Studies Program, Professor in the
Institute of Communication Research and Media and Cinema Studies, U IL
9) Karen Barad, Professor of Feminist Studies, Philosophy, and History of
Consciousness at the University of California at Santa Cruz
10) Rita Gonalez, Assitant Curator, LACMA
We are also asking for $15,000 from the International Faculty/Student Research Projects
Fund. With this funding we would hire a Pitzer summer research student whose job
would be to help organize a second, larger meeting for Fall 2012 (to occur at three
international hubs, in person or through technology) that would bring together the 28-30
chosen instructors for the course, representing institutions all over the world. A graduate
student at USC would be working on our technological needs over this summer as well.
Given where the discrete leaders in the field are employed, we might imagine that this
“meeting” would occur in LA, Australia, and either Canada or Europe (depending upon
which teachers are on our final list). This meeting would take place in the Fall of 2012,
and would be attended at its various locations by Juhasz, Balsamo, and/or the student
researcher. At the 2nd meeting(s) we would discuss details of the course: assignments,
scheduling, technology management, infrastructure, enrollment, recording, archiving.
Budget:
Meeting one
Airfare:
Hotels:
Meals:
Miscallaneous Expenses
$4000
$2000
$500
$500
Meeting Two
Pitzer summer intern
Airfare
Lodging
Meals
Technology and Staff
$5000
$6000
$2000
$1000
$1000
Trial Course Budget*
Stipends for Dialoguers (28 @ $1000- 10 in kind)
Technology
Travel
$18,000
$2000
$2000
*please note, given the stature of the participants in this project, we are planning for
conversations about institutional support and fundraising to be part of the two meetings.
We will use $4000 from the Global-Local Curricular Development Grant to cover course
costs, but will raise the stipends for participants elsewhere. We also assume that some of
these professors will end up “teaching” the entire class (i.e. offering it for credit at their
own institutions), which means they will be paid by their home institution and not Pitzer
or USC (who will be paying Juhasz and Balsamo, respectively.