judy wajcman feminism confronts technology

The courses will vary, as some are undergraduate and some are graduate, and the institutions vary widely by mission and geography. Subsequent weeks will feature discussions about more focused topics – feminism, technology and labour one week feminism, technology and sexuality another, and so forth.Īt participating colleges, professors will base their own courses on each weekly theme, sharing course materials and assignments, but customising them for their own students. That video is designed to provide a historic overview.

The first week’s video will feature Balsamo in a discussion with Judy Wajcman, a sociologist at the London School of Economics and Political Science whose 1991 book Feminism Confronts Technology led many feminist thinkers to focus more on technology issues. So each week, a video presentation – typically a discussion with one, two or three thinkers about feminism and technology – will set a theme for the week. “It recognises that, based on deep feminist pedagogical commitments, expertise is distributed throughout all the participants in a learning activity,” and does not just reside with one or two individuals. Rather it organizes around a central topic,” Balsamo says. “A Docc is different from a Mooc in that it doesn’t deliver a centralized singular syllabus to all the participants. “We’re not saying bad, bad Mooc, but we’re asking how else we might innovate,” says Anne Balsamo, co-facilitator of the Docc and dean of the School of Media Studies at the New School. The first Docc will be offered for credit at 16 colleges this coming semester – including Yale University Pennsylvania State University Goldsmiths, University of London and Flinders University in Australia – as well in a more Mooc-style approach in which videos and materials are available online for anyone. The Docc aims to challenge Mooc thinking about the role of the instructor, about the role of money, about hierarchy, about the value of “massive”, and many other things.

“Feminism and Technology” is trying to take a few Mooc elements, but then to change them in ways consistent with feminist pedagogy to create a distributed open collaborative course or Docc (pronounced “dock”). An international student body is expected.īut don’t look for this course in any Mooc catalogue. There are paths to credit, and it is fine for students to take the course without seeking credit. The course will involve video components, and will be available online to anyone, with no charge. At first glance, “Feminism and Technology” sounds like another massive open online open course (Mooc).

Judy wajcman feminism confronts technology