Race, Gender, and Data

(Same as Community Engagement and Social Change M121.) Data plays a crucial role in political representation, governmental resource allocation, and policy decisions. Investigation of how data does or does not ascribe a quantitative value to a human life by employing a community-engaged emphasis to study how emerging digital models link data with social justice organizing. Students learn to read datasets produced by governmental entities such as the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Department of Health and Human Services. Assignments include working on a community-engaged data project that evaluates and addresses key concerns facing communities-of-color. Introduction to critical data studies and applied data ethics. Studio sessions include lessons on finding and analyzing datasets relevant to racial and gender justice themes; and to generating data visualizations, digital stories, and maps using the latest software tools. No prior knowledge of statistics or quantitative analysis is required.

P/NP or letter grading.