Princeton TechSoc Reading Group

The Princeton TechSoc Reading Group is dedicated to exploring the interrelationships between technology and society, with an emphasis on IT policy issues. Subscribe here to the email list. TechSoc will meet from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. unless otherwise noted.

Fall 2020

• September 15 – We will be reading Langdon Winner’s “Do Artifacts Have Politics?”.
• October 6 – We will be reading “Can Voters Detect Malicious Manipulation of Ballot Marking Devices?” (Oakland ’20, Best Student Paper Award). We will also be hearing from the lead author of the paper, Matt Bernhard.

For additional information please contact Ashley Gorham at or Rushi Shah at .

Spring 2020

• February 4 – Discussion regarding global cyber threats in light of the United States Department of Homeland Security (USDHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency alert on threats from Iran, as well as concerns articulated in the media that this rhetoric may serve to obfuscate actions by other states, as occurred last fall.
• February 18 – Social Movements, Protests, and Technology, led by Shaanan Cohney
• March 3 – AI and Facial Recognition on College Campuses
• March 24 – Disinformation, led by Sergey Sanovitch
• April 7 – Privacy and Power, led by Ari Ezra Waldman
• April 21 – AI and the Future of Work Case Studies, led by Tithi Chattopadhyay

Fall 2019

• September 24 – Discussion regarding ethical and policy questions around data brokers, including the proposed Data Broker List Act of 2019.
• October 8 – Competition and Big Tech, hosted by Mihir Kshirsagar.
• October 22 – Dr. Seth Lazar will join us for a discussion of his scholarship on the social value of explanation in AI.
• November 5 – Smart Cities
• November 19 – Dr. Finn Brunton will join us to discuss his book Digital Cash: The Unknown History of the Anarchists, Utopians, and Technologists Who Created Cryptocurrency.
• December 3 – Privacy, Surveillance, and Data Governance in Education

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