Social Justice for Data Science Lecture Series: The Case Against Normalizing Surveillance

The Social Justice for Data Science Lecture Series, hosted by the Faculty of Computing and Data Sciences, brings together leading scholars in law, computer science, humanities, and social science to examine the current state of data science and social justice. The goal of the series is to engage with the relationship between justice (as a historically contingent and value-laden category) and data science (with a focus on datafication, automation, predictive analytics, and algorithmic decision-making). The series, developed by Ngozi Okidegbe, Moorman-Simon Interdisciplinary Career Development Assistant Professor of Computing & Data Sciences and Associate Professor of Law, and Allison McDonald, Assistant Professor of Computing & Data Sciences, will delve into the ways data science operates to advance, transform, and hinder justice-oriented movements by underrepresented and politically marginalized communities in different areas of life, and draw lessons that can help reorient the field of data science toward justice.