Applied Trans Technology Studies Symposium

The Center for Applied Transgender Studies is proud to host its first virtual symposium, co-organized by Senior Fellows Oliver Haimson, Alex Hanna, and Anna Lauren Hoffmann and co-sponsored by:

• Northwestern University (NU) Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing,
• University of Michigan (UM) School of Information,
• UM Digital Studies Institute,
• UM Institute for Research on Women and Gender,
• NU PhD in Technology and Social Behavior,
• The Sexualities Project at Northwestern, and
• NU Gender and Sexuality Studies Program.

This event highlights existing and emergent connections between applied trans studies and the critical and cultural study of technological design, development, application and use—especially in the domains of digital studies and critical data studies. Importantly, the event conceives of these connections as multifaceted and multidirectional. Rather than merely identifying trans lives and subjects within the existing matrices of study, we ask how the precepts and commitments of an applied trans studies challenges how we think about and understand data and digital technologies today.

SESSION 1: Applied Trans Studies X Critical Data Studies

In this session, we will hear from scholars on entanglements of gender, surveillance, and data technologies—in particular, computational techniques predicated on capturing, classifying, labeling, sorting, bounding, optimizing, and visualizing data in various contexts. Particular concern will be paid to the practical and material effects of these processes on trans lives and livelihoods, as well as the ways trans subjects make evident the assumptions of organizing logics of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and beyond.

Moderator: Alex Hanna (Google)

Panelists: Avery Everhart (University of Southern California), Jack Gieseking (University of Kentucky), Mar Hicks (Illinois Institute of Technology), Morgan Klaus Scheuerman (University of Colorado, Boulder), and Nikki Stevens (Dartmouth College)

KEYNOTE: How To Stuff a Wild Duck: Configurations of Transness in Corporate Computing

In this keynote, we will hear from Dr. Cassius Adair (University of Minnesota), who will bring us closer to a trans history of computing through an analysis of IBM.

SESSION 2: Applied Trans Studies X Digital Studies

In this session, we will hear from scholars who work at the intersection of applied trans studies and digital studies. We will explore the past, present, and future of trans technologies like apps, social media sites, health resources, games, and internet forums to understand some ways digital technologies do and can help to address challenges faced by trans people and communities.

Moderator: Oliver Haimson (University of Michigan)

Panelists: Alex Ahmed (Carnegie Mellon University), Moya Bailey (Northwestern University), Tee Chuanromanee (University of Notre Dame), Avery Dame-Griff (Washington State University, Pullman), and Whit Pow (New York University)

The symposium will take place from 12:00 PM to 4:00 PM Central Standard Time.

To register for the symposium, visit: https://bit.ly/CATS003

For more information, visit the Center for Applied Transgender Studies website.