HISTSCI 187: Information: History, Politics, and Ethics

Faculty: Alex Csiszar
TBA

Does information have a history? The control and manipulation of data has become central to politics, economics, and daily life. But what came before this age of bits and big data? How did we get to this point? This course will examine the changing meaning and significance of information from diverse perspectives including technology, gender, ethics, and materiality over the last several centuries. Topics will include information technologies from printing to digital computing, news and disinformation in social media, information labor, state secrecy, and the self as data. The course will include several optional field trips including a printing workshop and a visit to a bioinformatics production facility.