Course Code: SOCI 5999
Academic Year: 2024-2025
When the internet was first introduced into homes, it was interpreted as a free space where issues of race and gender, in particular, could be left behind. However, the digital reality, from dating and social networking sites to video games and porn, has turned out to be quite different from those idealized predictions. This course attempts to re-introduce the notions of race and gender in the study of the digital world since visible minorities and women were functionally absent from the internet at precisely the time when its imagery was being cemented in our consciousness. The course will commence by examining the major debates around race and gender in society. Once an understanding of these concepts is developed, the course will examine digital technology in the forms of the internet and mobile technology. In particular, the course will examine how race and gender happen online and in the digital world, focusing on how race, gender and digital technology intersect from a multi-disciplinary perspective. Topics include gender and the digital world; race and the digital world; representations on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace and in video games such as Grand Theft Auto and The Sims; and minority womens use of mobile technologies, among others. The course will ask 1) How does race and gender shape digital technologies? and 2) What gets revealed when we ask questions about race and gender in relation to digital technologies? The course will engage with a number of case studies to serve as the foundation for students' own research.