Amplifying Cyberdiversity: Real Humans in Virtual Spaces

3 units

Explore human identity in cyberspace, from the dawn of the Internet to today's cyberspace, where powerful algorithms are already deeply woven into every aspect of our personal lives: education, politics, consumer activity, finances, employment, relationships, medicine, psychology, spirituality, etc. Central to the course are questions of identity. What constitutes identity? How do intersecting identity markers such as race, age, class, sex, gender, sexuality, nationality, and ethnicity create a sense of Yes-this is me? More importantly: how have historical, systemic, identity-based inequalities already become the foundation of our online realities? How does cyber-identity affect our biological lives? At the end of this class, students will have ethical competencies to recognize and analyze the historical, unconscious, and/or invisible systemic biases and inequalities coded into the algorithms that amplify the effects of both discrimination and unearned privilege in our real lives. They will be able to communicate professionally in ways that are both evidence-based and emotionally intelligent as they analyze the paradoxical ways that cyberspaces both reinforce and revolutionize our most basic human institutions: family, work, education, government. Dr. Lynnea Brumbaugh merges her decades of teaching both diversity studies and technical, managerial communication to produce this novel course exploring what happens to real human beings when we build virtual spaces that amplify existing biases, inequalities, and discrimination.