iSchool Undergrad Events Calendar

Data Privacy Seminar Series: Michele Gilman, “Data-Centric Technologies and the Construction of Class”

Event Type

Informational

Sponsor

iSchool

Date

Apr 20, 2022   12:00 pm  

Registration

Registration

Wednesday, April 20, 12:00-1:00 pm CST, via Zoom.

Michele Gilman, “Data-Centric Technologies and the Construction of Class”

This talk explores the ways in which data-centric technologies are producing and perpetuating class divisions within the United States. While the existing literature grapples with the social justice implications of the datafied society, it does not focus on the causal mechanisms by which data-centric technologies maintain class divisions within the United States. We have focused far more on who is being harmed by technology, rather than who is benefitting. This class blindness can be harmful. Not only does it risk pathologizing the poor by linking their economic state to personal failings, but it also screens powerful actors and entities from scrutiny, thereby permitting economic inequality to flourish as a seemingly natural outgrowth of the market. By contrast, a critical class perspective can unmask how technology, power and law operate in tandem to perpetuate disadvantage.

Michele Gilman is the Venable Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Faculty Research and Development at the University of Baltimore School of Law. She directs the Civil Advocacy Clinic, where she supervises students representing low-income individuals and community groups in a wide range of litigation, legislation, and law reform matters. Professor Gilman writes extensively about data privacy and social welfare issues, and her articles have appeared in journals including the California Law Review, the Vanderbilt Law Review, and the Washington University Law Review, as well as in the popular media. She was a faculty fellow at Data & Society in 2019-2020. She received her B.A.from Duke University, and her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.