Seminar One

I’ve recorded a short lecture on the optional “Critical race theory & HCI” article, as well as a few loose ends, and some framing for where we’re headed next. I’ve used the “mmhmm” app because it allows you to interactively move through the lecture’s slides, so if it doesn’t work, please let me know.

Although I did not send you a discussion prompt this week (consider this one a freebie), there still is a reading for the class for our discussion tomorrow. I wanted to give you some pointers as guidance as you finish preparing for the class. The article is dense and it’s easy to get lost in detail — so your job is 1) understand the framing of Claire Jean Kim’s argument, 2) move through the article to see the examples of how triangulation works in history, and 3) bring the framing to examples today from your own knowledge, research, or experience. You do not have a discussion prompt due, but please do prepare with these framings in mind.

Claire Jean Kim published “The Racial Triangulation of Asian Americans” in 1999 in Politics & Society. She divides the evidence in her article into two time periods: the 1850s–1965 and 1965 to her present day. Since the piece was published in 1999, a number of things have changed, not least Michigan’s ban on affirmative action being upheld by the US Supreme Court. 

Here’s an approach to reading this article strategically:

• Start off by reading the intro & the conclusion before you read anything else
• Be able to define for yourself:
  • What is racial triangulation? (How does the diagram on p. 108 work?) What are its dynamics?
  • What is meant by relative valorization?
  • What is meant by civic ostracization?

• Kim builds her argument using historical examples from the 19th century and early 20th century, and then from 1965 to her present day.What are 1-2 examples of valorization and ostracization that she gives in the 19th/early 20th century and from the 1960s forward?
• What about today, in the 21 years since her article was published — what other examples and experiences might you include to illuminate how racial triangulation functions for Asian Americans?

We’ve made a few shifts to the syllabus, but for Monday, we are reading Ruha Benjamin’s Race after Technology. (Take note that the excerpts you have are from 3 chapters, so keep reading after the first footnotes!). We’re also taking up intersectionality. Please see the Slack channel for more information, and the discussion forum for your prompt for this week’s post.

Happy Labor Day weekend — I hope you’re getting a chance to rest. Not to disrupt that break, but a few announcements:

• Discussion forum questions are live: This week, we’re reading two chapters that critique racial perspectives and design practices that marginalize people. Ibrahim X. Kendi writes defines and explores assimilationist, segregationalist, and antiracist and how they work in Black and white communities. Sasha Costanza-Chock (they/their) examines design practices that might seem inclusive on the surface, but that reproduce exclusionary strategies and keep people who are at the margins out of the center of the design process. 
• I’ve put Costanza-Chock on Perusall, and I encourage you to use it, especially in discussion p. 98-99 (and in the critiques from p. 81 onward). I’m not able to Kendi on Perusall because it’s library access.
• Shan, Carol & Chris will be leading discussion this week

No class Monday. Monday is a holiday. Sleep in! See you Wednesday.

Thanks, everyone, for class today! It was great to see you and to kick off the school year. A few things for you to do:

1. Take a good look at course website. What questions do you have? Please bring them to class, post them on Slack, or email me or Nandini.
2. Define interaction design in the Discussion Board and then upload your diagram of what interaction design is to the Assignment box (both on Canvas).
3. If you’d like, try your hand at Perusall and read Ed Yong’s article “How the Pandemic Defeated America.” Please note that we are ironing out some bugs that are preventing some of you from logging in. I’ll update this progress on Slack. If you would just like to read the article, you’ll find it here on The Atlantic. If you can’t access it, let me know and I will send a PDF.

Let me know if you have any questions. See you on Wednesday.

To start, you’ll want to know about the philosophies behind this seminar and what we’ll be reading and exploring. We will use a number of different tools (this site, Zoom, Slack, Canvas). I’ll see you at 8 am on Monday morning — about 10 1/2 hours from now.