SI 755 / COMM 840.002 -- Winter 2018
Prof. Sandvig, University of Michigan
http://755.niftyc.org/
Announcements
- Unorthodox dissertation format examples added to the syllabus.
- VR examples from class added to the syllabus.
- Spring Break was moved to the right place on the schedule.
- Class will be held in 1440 ISR from 1/24 onward -- check your e-mail for details!
- Remember that weekly questions must be submitted one hour before class starts.
- Starting 1/24 weekly open office hours will be move to 4244 ISR to be closer to the classroom.
About the Class
Instructor
Prof. Christian Sandvig
csandvig@umich.edu
734/763-0861
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~csandvig/
Office: 5385 North Quad OR 4244 ISR Thompson
My most frequently-checked physical mailbox is in the Communication Studies 5th floor mailbox room (5334 North Quad)
Office Hours: 3:00-4:00 p.m. Wednesdays and by appointment
Course Description
Any traditional research method was once unorthodox. While many are prone to think about methods as boring tools (or even as a necessary but unpleasant step on the road to results), every boring method was once daring and controversial. This seminar will cover challenging developments in both qualitative and quantitative research methods, including perspectives from the humanities, social sciences, art, design, and engineering. It will address the question of how new research methods are invented, applied, transferred between problems and disciplines, and formalized. The overall focus of the course will be research design, rather than learning the procedures of a single method. In addition, we will spend some time trying to think creatively about possible new methods and research designs. Readings are split between "classics" and recent innovations. In discussion of recent methodological trends, particular attention will be paid to Internet / digital / new media research, algorithm studies, new digital sources of data ("big data" or "computational social science"), spatial / geographic methods, visualization as a research method, activism in/as research methods, and unobtrusive methods. The primary goal of the seminar is to encourage people who want to find things out -- whether using new or old methods -- to see their research method as a creative act.
Learning Objectives
- Answer challenges about your chosen research method with sophistication that far exceeds statements of procedure
- Select your research methods with a keen eye for the breadth of what is now possible
- Write a description of your research method that demonstrates mastery of the philosophical underpinnings of your search for knowledge
- Relate exciting new developments in method to specific pivotal moments in the history of the research enterprise
- Design, introduce, and justify new research methods if necessary
- Take a position on the methodological controversies of your sub-field that is informed and nuanced
Course Credit
- Students from any program are welcome (not just SI or COMM).
- This course is intended for doctoral students. Other graduate students may enroll by instructor permission if there is a good reason to do so.
- Some familiarity with a research method from any research tradition is required; completing most methods courses satisfies this requirement. Co-enrollment in a methods course (i.e. you are enrolled right now) also satisfies this requirement.
Class Requirements
Students will be responsible for a seminar paper proposal and a research paper of about 25 pages. In addition, there will be short weekly assignments or "questions" due at the beginning of each class meeting when reading is assigned. These will be read and discussed in class but not graded. All assignments will be turned in electronically. No late work! No incompletes!
The weekly questions will probably follow this pattern:
4 short responses to questions about methods
4 research designs
1 proposal for a new measure or statistic
2 ideas for new visualizations
1 item of curricular material about methods
Required Books
There ARE required books. Other readings will be distributed electronically. You can buy the required books anywhere you'd like. For example, if you buy them new from amazon.com they can be returned for a full refund within 30 days, and if you sign up for "Amazon Prime Student" two-day shipping is free. Most of these books are also widely available as discounted used books, as textbook rentals, and at the library. I did not list our books at the bookstore because we will decide some of them collectively on the first day of class, and this is past the bookstore deadline.
A quick word about buying the books: As befits the topic of the class some of them are unorthodox. A librarian and fan of the Lesy book commented, "I can't believe this is an assigned reading for a course!" I know the Webb book is not cheap and the Lesy book is strange but I think you will find them worthwhile.
- Unobtrusive Measures
by Eugene J. Webb, Donald T. Campbell, Richard D. Schwartz, Lee Sechrest
Sage, 1999
(revised edition)
[buy from amazon.com] [buy from alibris] - Wisconsin Death Trip
by Michael Lesy
University of New Mexico Press, 2000
(new edition)
[buy from amazon.com] [buy from alibris] - Watch this space! Additional required books will be decided collectively during the first class meeting, and announced here shortly after that.
Other Readings
Additional readings are available online. These are either free on the Web or use password-protected links to PDFs. These password-protected links lead to the reading folder in Canvas. You do not need to use Canvas to access these readings -- it is easiest to navigate to them by clicking on the links on this page.
Recommended Books
These books are recommended in the sense that every doctoral student working in a research tradition of the social sciences and humanities should own them already. If you don't own them, you should buy them! They are highly recommended.
- Writing for Social Scientists: How to Start and Finish Your Thesis, Book, or Article
by Howard S. Becker & Pamela Richards.
University of Chicago Press, 2007. (any edition is fine.)
(Note that although the phrase "social scientist" is in the title of the book, this book is equally relevant to any researcher from the social sciences or humanities even if they don't identify with the phrase "social scientist".)
[Buy from amazon.com] [Buy from alibris] - The Elements of Style
by William Strunk, Jr. & E. B. White.
New York: Longman, 2000.
(I like the fourth edition, but any edition is fine except for the 1920 or 2011 "Original Edition" that does not include E. B. White. Be sure it has E. B. White. If it has Kalman as a co-author too, I think that is OK -- this just means it is the illustrated edition.)
[Buy from amazon.com] [Buy from alibris]
Schedule
These dates and readings will be adjusted to reflect a student interest survey and our progress (or lack of it). This means that you should check the class Web site regularly for updates.
Part I: An Overview of Orthodoxy and Research Methods
3 Jan (Wed): Introductions, Syllabus Design Session
- The syllabus is this page. Please carefully read the syllabus.
10 Jan (Wed): The Fundamentals: Methods, Instruments, and Orthodoxy
- Post your answer to the weekly question to the Canvas forum at least one hour before class begins.
- Sandvig, C. & Hargittai, E. (2015). How to Think about Digital Research. In: E. Hargittai & C. Sandvig (eds.) Digital Research Confidential: The Secrets of Studying Behavior Online (read ch. 1). Cambridge: MIT Press. (on Canvas -- I put the whole book up; it's alphabetized by book editor so look under H for Hargittai)
- Popper, Karl. (1963) Conjectures and Refutations, London: Routledge and Keagan Paul. (read only pp. 33-39, Science as Falsification) (on Canvas)
- Feyerabend, Paul. (1975). Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge. Humanities Press. (on Canvas)
- Pajares, Frank. (n.d.) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn: A Synopsis. The Philosopher's Magazine. (on Canvas)
- Bird, Alexander. (2004). Thomas Kuhn. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford, California: Metaphysics Research Laboratory. (Web reading: read the section "Kuhn and Social Science") http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thomas-kuhn/#6.3
- de Solla Price, Derek J. (1986). Little Science, Big Science... and Beyond. New York: Columbia University Press. (read the chapter: "Of Sealing Wax and String") (on Canvas)
- Forscher, Bernard K. (1963). Chaos in the Brickyard. Science 142(3590): 339. (on Canvas)
- a roundup of #overlyhonestmethods on Twitter (collected by the instructor).
Part II: Case Studies of Unorthodox Research Methods
17 Jan (Wed): Interestingness, Publication Bias, The Decline Effect, and the Crisis of Confidence in Significance Testing
(includes: The Bem E.S.P. Study)
- Post your answer to the weekly question to the Canvas forum before class begins.
- Davis, Murray S. (1971). That's Interesting! Towards a Phenomenology of Sociology and a Sociology of Phenomenology. Philosophy of Social Science 1: 309-344. (on Canvas)
- Hacking, Ian. (1990). The Taming of Chance. New York: Cambridge University Press. (Read Ch. 1, The Argument [pp. 1-7]). (on Canvas) (This PDF is intentionally truncated.)
- Hacking, Ian. (1990). The Taming of Chance. New York: Cambridge University Press. (Read Outline of Other Chapters). (on Canvas)
- Sterne, Jonathan A. C. & Smith, George Davey. (2001). Sifting the Evidence: What's Wrong with Significance Tests? British Medical Journal 322: 226-231. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1119478/pdf/226.pdf (assumes some familiarity with statistical methods -- just stick the to text and do the best you can.)
- Ioannidis, John P. A. (2005). Why Most Published Research Findings Are False. PLoS Medicine 2(8): 696-701. http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/fetchObjectAttachment.action?uri=inf... (assumes familiarity with statistical methods -- if you don't have that, just stick the to text and do the best you can.)
- Open Science Collaboration, The. (2015). Estimating the Reproducibility of Psychological Science. Science 349(6251): 943, aac4716-1 to aac4716-8.
- Gonzales, J. E. & Cunningham C. A. (2015, August). The Promise of Pre-Registration in Psychological Research. Psychological Science Agenda. http://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2015/08/pre-registration.aspx
- Please browse / glance through https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/
- Optional:
- If you don't know what Bayesian means, and you would like to: Jackman, Simon. (2009). Bayesian Analysis for the Social Sciences. Wiley-Blackwell: New York. (Excerpts.) (on Canvas) (does not require statistical training, I think)
- Bem, D. J. (2011). Feeling the Future: Experimental Evidence for Anomalous Retroactive Influences on Cognition and Affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 100 (3): 407-425. (on Canvas)
- Wagenmakers, E.-J., Wetzels, R., Borsboom, D., and van der Maas, H. L. J. (2011). Why Psychologists Must Change the Way They Analyze Their Data: The Case of Psi: Comment on Bem (2011). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 100 (3): 426–432. (on Canvas)
- McCloskey, Donald N. (1986). Why Economic Historians Should Stop Relying on Statistical Tests of Significance, and Lead Economists and Historians Into the Promised Land. Newsletter of the Cliometrics Society 2(2). http://www.deirdremccloskey.org/docs/pdf/Article_180.pdf (probably worth reading for attitude alone)
24 Jan (Wed): Unusual Archives, Database Subtraction, Visual Argument
(includes: the case of Michael Lesy's dissertation)
- Post your answer to the weekly question to the Canvas forum before class begins.
- Read Wisconsin Death Trip. (all of it).
- Paglen, Trevor. (2007). Unmarked Planes and Hidden Geographies. Vectors: Journal of Culture and Technology in a Dynamic Vernacular 2(2). Read: Editor's Introduction, browse the interactive project itself (including planes, bases, movements, flight procedures), Author's Statement, Designer's Statement, Peer Response.
- Ankerson, Megan S. (forthcoming). Read/Write the Digital Archive: Strategies for Historical Web Research. In: E. Hargittai & C. Sandvig (eds.) Digital Research Confidential: The Secrets of Studying Behavior Online (ch. 2, pp. TBD). Cambridge: MIT Press. (on Canvas -- alphabetized under Hargittai for the book editor)
- Zongker, Doug. (2006). Chicken Chicken Chicken: Chicken Chicken. Annals of Improbable Research 12(5): 16-21. (on Canvas) (Yes, it's a joke.)
- Optional: See also the conference presentation (YouTube).
- Optional / also discussed in class:
- Paglen, Trevor. (2008). I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed By Me. New York: Melville House.
- You can browse The Charles Van Schaick Archive of the Wisconsin Historical Society (the source material for Lesy, above): http://www.flickr.com/photos/whsimages/sets/72157602476458793/
- An Interview with Michael Lesy -- http://www.identitytheory.com/michael-lesy/
- Berger, John & Mohr, Jean. (1997). A Fortunate Man: The Story of a Country Doctor. New York: Vintage.
- Berger, John & Mohr, Jean. (2010). A Seventh Man: A Book of Images and Words about the Experience of Migrant Workers in Europe (new ed.) New York: Verso.
31 Jan (Wed): NO CLASS (Instructor Absence)
- This meeting time will be made up with other activities as discussed in class. Feel free to start next week's readings early.
7 Feb (Wed): Social Justice, Activism, and Method
(includes: the case of Eric Michaels)
- Post your answer to the weekly question to the Canvas forum one hour before class begins.
- Indigeneous Broadcasting (a timeline and summary from the Australian Government -- archived by the Internet Archive in 2017).
- Michaels, Eric. (1994). Bad Aboriginal Art: Tradition, Media, and Technological Horizons. Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press. (excerpts:)
- Langton, M. "Introduction" (1994)
- Hebdige, D. "Foreward" (excerpts: pp. ii-xxi, xxiii-xxv) (1994)
- Michaels, E. "For a Cultural Future: Francis Jupurrurla Makes TV at Yuendumu" (1986)
- Michaels, Eric. (1990). Unbecoming. Durham: Duke University Press. (various excerpts as marked) (Note that this is Michaels's AIDS diary.)
- Rowse, T. (1990). Enlisting the Warlpiri. Continuum: The Australian Journal of Media & Culture 3(2).
- Hodge, R. (1990). Aboriginal Truth and White Media: Eric Michaels meets the Spirit of Aboriginalism. Continuum: The Australian Journal of Media & Culture 3(2).
- Hinkson, M. (2002). New Media Projects at Yuendumu: Inter-cultural engagement and self-determination in an era of accelerated globalization. Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies 16(2): 201-220.
- Skim the editorial information for the Journal of Universal Rejection.
- Optional / also discussed in class:
- Michaels, Eric. (1982). TV Tribes. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation. University of Texas, Austin. Austin, TX.
- Deger, Jennifer. (2006). Shimmering Screens: Making Media in an Aboriginal Community. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
- Bush Mechanics. (2001). Bush Mechanics Episode 1 (excerpts). Broome, Western Australia: Rebel Films.
- Barbekuieria. (1986). Barbekuieria (excerpts). Sydney, Australia: Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
14 Feb (Wed) (Valentine's Day): Auditing, Reverse Engineering, and Correspondence Studies
- Post your answer to the weekly question to the Canvas forum before class begins.
- The perspective of a real-life housing auditor: listen to about the first 5 minutes of Act One in This American Life #512: House Rules. Rental Gymnastics. (~31 minutes)
- Gaddis, S. M. (2017). "An Introduction to Audit Studies in the Social Sciences." In: Audit Studies: Behind the Scenes with Theory, Method, and Nuance, S. M. Gaddis (ed.), Springer.
- Gillespie, T. (2012). Can an Algorithm Be Wrong? limn 2: http://limn.it/can-an-algorithm-be-wrong/.
- Ziewitz, M. (2016). Governing Algorithms: Myth, Mess, Methods. Science, Technology, and Human Values 41(1): 3-13.
- Sweeney, L. (2013). Discrimination in Online Ad Delivery ACM Queue 11(3): 1-19.
- Read this Web page explaining the Information Flow Experiments and AdFisher: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mtschant/ife/.
- Mathias Lecuyer, Guillaume Ducoffe, Francis Lan, Andrei Papancea, Theofilos Petsios, Riley Spahn, Augustin Chaintreau, and Roxana Geambasu. (2014). "XRay: Increasing the Web’s Transparency with Differential Correlation." Technical report. Columbia University.
- Chen, L., Mislove, A., Wilson, C. (2015). Peeking Beneath the Hood of Uber. Proceedings of the 2015 Internet Measurement Conference (IMC'15). https://cbw.sh/static/pdf/chen-imc15.pdf
- Chen, L., Ma, R., Hannak, A., & Wilson, C. (2018). Investigating the Impact of Gender on Rank in Resume Search Engines. Proceedings of the 2018 ACM Conference on Computer-Human Interaction (CHI'18). https://cbw.sh/static/pdf/chen-chi18.pdf
- LaLoudouanna, Doudou & Tarare, Mambobo B. (2003). Data Set Selection. Journal of Machine Learning Gossip 1: 11-19 http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download;jsessionid=41081C5E8486C751A2B1402EF9A9AE0B?doi=10.1.1.59.8077&rep=rep1&type=pdf (Skim only -- Note that this paper is not real, sort of.)
- Optional / also discussed in class:
- Read Field Experiments (p. 103-108), in: National Research Council Panel on Measuring Racial Discrimination, The. (2004). Measuring Racial Discrimination. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. (This is a free PDF download -- read pp. 103-108.)
- Hannak, A., Soeller, G., Lazer, D., Mislove, A., Wilson, C. (2014). Measuring Price Discrimination and Steering on E-commerce Web Sites. ACM SIGCOMM/SIGMETRICS Internet Measurement Conference (IMC ’14).
- Edelman, B. (2011). Bias in Search Results? Diagnosis and Response. Indian Journal of Law and Technology 7: 16-32.
- Reuters Staff. (2012, December 13). Reuters Advisory: Story on Profiling in Website Ads Withdrawn.
21 Feb (Wed): Visualization as Method
- Post your answer to the weekly question to the Canvas forum before class begins.
- Kosara, Robert. (2008). Visualization Criticism - The Missing Link Between Information Visualization and Art. IEEE Computer Graphics & Applications (CG&A), Visualization Viewpoints, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 13-15. http://kosara.net/papers/Kosara_IV_2007.pdf
- Drucker, Johanna. (2014). Graphesis: Visual Forms of Knowledge Production. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (Read Ch. 1, "Image, Interpretation, and Interface," pp. 16-64) (On canvas).
- Drucker, Johanna. (2011) Humanities Approaches to Graphical Display. Digital Humanities Quarterly 5, 1. http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/5/1/000091/000091.html
- Read ten unfamiliar entries and click "Search by Function" in the "The Data Visualization Catalogue" at https://datavizcatalogue.com.
- Please view and interact with these examples:
- Emoji Tracker by Matthew Rothenberg http://emojitracker.com/ (look at / click)
- PhotoTrails (browse)
- U.S. Gun Killings (browse)
- Richard Rogers, Laura van der Vlies, Kim de Groot, Esther Weltevrede, Erik Borra. (2008). The Demise of the Directory: Web Librarian Work Removed in Google. Video recording. Amsterdam: GovComOrg Foundation. (~5m movie) (ideally download and watch from your desktop if you can play FLV files. -- If not, try this web page wrapper and be sure to view full screen by clicking the tiny, tiny button just left of the volume thingy)
- mssngpeces. (2008). I Want You To Want Me / by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar. Video recording. New York, NY: MoMA. (watch ~4 min. movie)
- Web Seer (try it)
- Attacking Discrimination With Smarter Machine Learning (interactive visualization -- click the buttons, drag the thresholds, etc.)
- AI Senses (grant requested browser permissions, then click "OPEN LIVE VISUALIZATION" one or more places)
- Optional / Also discussed in class:
- Feltron Reports by Nicholas Felton http://www.feltron.com/ (just browsing briefly is OK)
- The Dumpster by Golan Levin
http://artport.whitney.org/commissions/thedumpster/ (Requires an obsolete Java version to run.) See also: explanatory video. - We Feel Fine by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar
http://www.wefeelfine.org/ (Requires an obsolete Java version to run.) - Georgi Grechko's cyclogram of the Salyut-6.
- Minard's portrait of Napoleon's March
28 Feb (Wed): NO CLASS
- Spring Break
7 Mar (Wed): Unobtrusive Methods, Crowdsourcing
(includes: the Humphreys Tearoom Trade controversy. a.k.a. "public bathroom week")
- Post your answer to the weekly question to the Canvas forum before class begins.
- Read Webb et al. book Ch. 2-5 and Ch. 8-9 (Approximations to Knowledge, Physical Traces: Erosion and Accretion, Archives I: The Running Record, Archives II: The Episodic and Private Record, and Simple Observation, A Statistician on Method, and Cardinal Newman's Epitaph.).
- Roth, Julius A. (1966). Hired Hand Research. American Sociologist 1(4): 190-196. Read only only the preface.
- Optional / also discussed in class:
- Shaw, A. (forthcoming). Hired Hands and Dubious Guesses: Adventures in Crowdsourced Data Collection. In: E. Hargittai & C. Sandvig (eds.) Digital Research Confidential: The Secrets of Studying Behavior Online (ch. 7, pp. TBD). Cambridge: MIT Press. (on Canvas)
- The complete Roth article from this week.
- Ch. 6 ("Contrived Observation") in Webb et al. may also be interesting.
- Confessions of a mental health research interviewer: This American Life #37: The Job That Takes Over Your Life: Act One, The Test
- Humphreys, Laud. (1970). Tearoom trade: a study of homosexual encounters in public places. New York: Duckworth. (Documents from the controversy are On Canvas -- see: Humphreys Ch. 2, Hoffman, Glazer, and Humphreys -- Retrospect.)
- Middlemist, R. D., Knowles, E. S. & Matter, C.F. (1976). Personal Space Invasions in the Lavatory: Suggestive Evidence for Arousal. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 33 (5), 541-546.
14 Mar (Wed): Methodology and the Nonhuman Turn
(includes: performative experiments, multispecies ethnography, algorithmic ethnomethods. a.k.a. "the weirdest week")
- Post your answer to the weekly question to the Canvas forum before class begins.
- Vertesi, J. (2015). Seeing like a Rover. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Ch. 6: Visualization, Embodiment, and Social Order). (On canvas.)
- Bogost, I. (2012). Alien Phenomenology: or, What It's Like to Be a Thing. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. (Ch. 3: Metaphorism, and Ch. 4: Carpentry -- N.B.: "OOO" stands for Object-Oriented Ontology -- On canvas.)
- Latour, B. (1996) Aramis, Or: The Love of Technology. (C. Porter, trans.) Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Excerpts. (Excerpts -- OK to skim this! -- On canvas.)
- Kirksey, S. E. (2010). The Emergence of Multispecies Ethnography. Cultural Anthropology 25(4): 545-576. (On canvas.)
- Kirksey, S. E., Hannah, D., Lotterman, C., Moore, L. G. (2016). The Xenopus Pregnancy Test: A Performative Experiment. Environmental Humanities 8(1): 37-56. https://read.dukeupress.edu/environmental-humanities/article/8/1/37/61689/The-Xenopus-Pregnancy-TestA-Performative
- Data Walking (Website). http://www.datawalking.org/ (Read: Home page, Roles, Case Studies [all 3]).
- Ziewitz, M. (2017). A not quite random walk: Experimenting with the ethnomethods of the algorithm. Big Data & Society 4(2): 1-13. (On canvas.)
- Leahu, L. & Sengers, P. (2015). Freaky: Collaborative Enactments of Emotion. CSCW'15 Companion https://feministcscw2015.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/csde104-leahu.pdf
- Pencil, Murdock. (1976). Salt Passage Research: The State of the Art. Journal of Communication 26 (4): 31-36. (On canvas.)
- Optional / Also discussed in class:
- Galloway, A. R. (2014). The Cybernetic Hypothesis. differences 25(1): 107-131. (On canvas.)
- Dobson, K. (2004). Blendie. Proceedings of the 5th ACM conference on Designing interactive systems (DIS'04) Exhibits: 309. (On canvas.)
- Dobson, K. (2005). Wearable body organs: critical cognition becomes (again) somatic. Proceedings of the 5th ACM conference on Creativity & cognition (C&C'05): 259-262. (On canvas.)
21 Mar (Wed): Emerging Controversies in Big Data and Computational Social Science
(includes: The Google Flu Trends controversy, "Social Credit" citizen scoring, "Culturnomics")
- Post your answer to the weekly question to the Canvas forum before class begins.
- Anderson, C. (2008, June 23). The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete. Wired. (On canvas.)
- Michel, J.-B., Shen, Y. K., Aiden, A. P., Veres, A., Gray, M. K., The Google Books Team, Pickett, J. P., Hoiberg, D., Clancy, D., Norvig, P., Orwant, J., Pinker, S., Nowak, M. K., & Aiden, E. L. (2010). Quantitative Analysis of Culture Using Millions of Digitized Books. Science. (On canvas.)
- Mercator Institute for China Studies, The. (2017, September 15). Shazeda Ahmed on China’s Social Credit System. MERICS Experts Series Podcast #41.(https://www.merics.org/en/podcast/shazeda-ahmed-chinas-social-credit-system (~16 min.)
- Ginsberg, J., Mohebbi, M. H., Patel, R. S., Brammer, L., Smolinski, M. S., & Brilliant, L. (2009). Detecting influenza epidemics using search engine query data. Nature 457(7232): 1012–1014. (On canvas.)
- Lazer, D., Kennedy, R., King, G., & Vespignani, A. (2014). The Parable of Google Flu: Traps in Big Data Analysis. Science 343: 1203-1205. https://gking.harvard.edu/files/gking/files/0314policyforumff.pdf
- Plantin, J.-C., Lagoze, C., Edwards, P. N., & Sandvig, C. (2017). Big data is not about size: when data transform scholarship. In: Clément Mabi, Jean-Christophe Plantin, & Laurence Monnoyer-Smith (eds.), Open, Share, Reuse: Critical views on digital data / Ouvrir, Partager, Réutiliser: Regards critiques sur les données numériques. Paris: Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l’homme. (online open access as a Web page) https://books.openedition.org/editionsmsh/9103
- Hardt, M. (2014). How Big Data is Unfair. Medium. (Excerpts as marked -- On canvas.)
- Wallach, H. (2014). Big Data, Machine Learning, and the Social Sciences. Presentation to the workshop "Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency in Machine Larning" (FAT-ML) at the Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS). (Excerpts as marked -- On canvas.)
- van Nostrand, M., Riemenschneider, J. & Nicodemo, L. (2017). Uromycitisis Poisoning Results in Lower Urinary Tract Infection and Acute Renal Failure: Case Report. Urology & Nephrology Open Access. (Skim / glance at only. Note: This article is a joke. It is not true. It was published by a predatory journal in a sting operation.) (On canvas.)
- Optional / also discussed in class:
- Daum, J. (2017, December 24). China Through a Glass, Darkly: What Foreign Media Miss in China's Social Credit. China Law Translate: Originals. http://www.chinalawtranslate.com/seeing-chinese-social-credit-through-a-glass-darkly/?lang=en
- State Council of China. (2014, 14 June). Planning Outline for the Construction of a Social Credit System (2014-2020). Rogier Creemers, trans. https://chinacopyrightandmedia.wordpress.com/2014/06/14/planning-outline-for-the-construction-of-a-social-credit-system-2014-2020/
- King, G., Pan, J., & Roberts, M. E. (2013). How Censorship in China Allows Government Criticism but Silences Collective Expression. The American Political Science Review 107(2): 326-343. (On canvas.)
- Blumenstock, J. Cadamuro, G., & On, R. (2015). Predicting poverty and wealth from mobile phone metadata. Science 350(6264): 1073-1076. (On canvas.)
28 Mar (Wed): New Methods, New Ethics
(includes: the Common Rule, the Facebook Emotional Contagion Study)
- Post your answer to the weekly question to the Canvas forum before class begins.
- Gibney, E. (2017, October 3). Ethics of Internet research trigger scrutiny. Nature 550(7674): 16-17. https://www.nature.com/news/ethics-of-internet-research-trigger-scrutiny-1.22746
- Jaschik, S. (2017, January 19). New 'Common Rule' for Research. (#News) Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/01/19/us-issues-final-version-common-rule-research-involving-humans.
- Shweder, R. A. & Nisbett, R. E. (2017, March 17). Long-Sought Research Deregulation is Upon Us. Don't Squander the Moment. (Commentary) The Chronicle of Higher Education 63(28). (On canvas.)
- Murphy, K. (2017, May 22). Some Social Scientists Are Tired of Asking for Permission. (Science Times) The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/22/science/social-science-research-institutional-review-boards-common-rule.html.
- Kramer, A. D. I., Guillory, J. E., and Hancock, J. T. (2014). Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks. PNAS 111(24) 8788-8790. (On canvas.)
- Rudder, C. (2014, July 27). We Experiment on Human Beings! OKCupid Blog. https://theblog.okcupid.com/we-experiment-on-human-beings-5dd9fe280cd5
- boyd, danah. (2016). Untangling research and practice: What Facebook's "emotional contagion" study teaches us. Research Ethics 12(1): 4-13. (On canvas.)
- Class handout: Recipes to make your own statistic. (On canvas.)
- American Physical Society. (2014, April 1). APS Announces New Open Access Initiative to Make Single-Authored Papers by Cats Freely Available. APS News. https://journals.aps.org/2014/04/01/aps-announces-a-new-open-access-initiative.
- also see the Wikipedia Entry for F. D. C. Willard, the first cat to publish a paper in a prestigious physics journal (Physical Review Letters).
- Optional / also discussed in class:
- US Government. Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects. 82 FR 7149: 7149-7274. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/01/19/2017-01058/federal-policy-for-the-protection-of-human-subjects#104
- boyd, danah, and Kate Crawford. "Six Provocations for Big Data." Oxford Internet Institute, 2011. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1926431.
4 Apr (Wed): The Space / Place / Maps / Geo Revolution
- Post your answer to the weekly question to the Canvas forum before class begins.
- de Smith, Michael; Goodchild, Michael F.; & Longley, Paul A. (2015). Geospatial Analysis: A Comprehensive Guide to Principles, Techniques, and Software Tools. (5th ed.) Leicester: Matador Press. (various excerpts.) (On canvas.)
- Monmonier, Mark. (1996). How to Lie With Maps (2nd. ed.) Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Read pp. 1-23 and pp. 139-162) (On canvas.)
- Dodge, M. (2005). "The Role of Maps in Virtual Research Methods." In Virtual Methods: Issues in Social Research on the Internet, pp. 113-128. C. Hine (ed.). Oxford, UK: Berg Publishers. http://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/m.dodge/cv_files/virtual_methods_chapter.pdf
- Strange Maps -- http://bigthink.com/blogs/strange-maps (this is easier to browse randomly than chronologically, please click around through past posts and be sure you view at least 10 maps)
- Read "Denis Wood and The Narrative Atlas of Boylan Heights" (blog post) http://makingmaps.net/2008/01/10/denis-wood-a-narrative-atlas-of-boylan-heights/ [note esp. all maps!]).
- Browse the "Yummy" category on http://www.radicalcartography.net/ (click "Yummy" in left sidebar then view at least 10 maps that are NOT in the "Top Ten" sub-category).
- Borges, Jorge Luis & Casares, Adolfo Bioy. (1946/1975). On Exactitude in Science. In: J. L. Borges, A Universal History of Infamy. (Norman Thomas de Giovanni, tr.) London: Penguin. (On canvas.)
- Optional / also discussed in class:
- Schrage and Staple of TeleGeography and the Circadian geography of communications networks (no online version available that I can find).
- Roland Vilett and over-time "satellite" maps of GZ City (a virtual world)
- The Tactical Technology Collective: Information Activism -- https://informationactivism.org/en
- The Los Angeles Water Cycle by Jane Tsong
- An Atlas of Radical Cartography by Lize Mogel and Alexis Bhagat -- http://www.an-atlas.com/
- The Institute for Applied Autonomy: The iSee Project
- W20JW Radio Activity by Decade by Danny Gregory and Paul Sahre
- Wind Map by Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg
- The People's Atlas by AREA Chicago.
- War Maps: Sarajevo by Ngaire Ackerley; Beirut (larger view) by Ashkal Alwan
11 Apr (Wed): Online / Virtual / VR / Cyber / Internet Ethnography
- Post your answer to the weekly question to the Canvas forum before class begins.
- Boellstorff, T., Nardi, B., Pearce, C., Taylor, T. L., & Marcus, G. E. (2012). Ethnography and Virtual Worlds: A Handbook of Method. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. (read ONLY Section 2.1 "A Brief History of Ethnographic Methods" PDF pp. 13-22. and Section 3.0 ["Ten Myths About Ethnography"] through the end of Section 3.6 "Ethnography is Writing About Your Personal Experience" pp. 29-45 -- On canvas.)
- Hine, C. (2017). "Ethnographies of Online Communities and Social Media: Modes, Varieties, Affordances." In: N. G. Fielding, R. M. Lee, & G. Blank (eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Online Research Methods, (pp. 401-415) Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. (On canvas.).
- Boellstorff, T. (2008). Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human. Princeton University Press. (Read ONLY Ch. 1: "The Subject and Scope of this Inquiry" and Ch. 9: "The Virtual" -- On canvas.)
- Law, T. & Mott, J. "VR for Greater Ethnographic Immersion." (Blog post.) https://bammglobal.com/vr-for-greater-ethnographic-immersion/
- Backe, E. L. (2016). "A Review of Virtual Reality Ethnographic Film, or: How We've Always been Creating Virtual Reality." The Geek Anthropologist. (Blog post.) https://thegeekanthropologist.com/2016/11/17/a-review-of-virtual-reality-ethnographic-film-or-how-weve-always-been-creating-virtual-reality/
- Miner, H. (1956). Body Ritual Among the Nacirema. American Anthropologist (Note: this is not real.) (On canvas.)
- Optional / also discussed in class:
- Suchman, L. A. (2006). Human-Machine Reconfigurations: Plans and Situated Actions. (2nd. ed.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (On canvas.).
- Horst, H. A., & Miller, D. (eds.) (2018). Digital Anthropology, 0th Edition. London: Bloomsbury. (See esp. Ch. 1.) (On canvas).
- Huhtamo, E., & Parikka, J. (eds.) (2012). Media Archaeology. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. (read ONLY ch. 1: "An Archaeology of Media Archaeology" -- On canvas.).
- "Ethnographic" 360 VR examples discussed: (YouTube 360 or 360+3D unless noted.)
- China Truck Stop Hotel. BAMM Global.
- Waymo 360 LIDAR Experience. Waymo.
- Hamilton Island. Quantas.
- Life in a Tea Shop in Nepal. ING.
- 360 VR Examples. Brand Genetics.
- Nomads. Felix & Paul Studios. (Samsung GEAR only).
18 Apr (Wed): How to Teach Research Methods / BONUS: Unusual Dissertation Formats
- No weekly question today -- work on your final paper!
- This is a make-up session to replace 31 Jan, as discussed in class. LOCATION CHANGE: We will meet at the location given in e-mail.
- Eison, J. (2002). Teaching Strategies for the Twenty-First Century. In: R. M. Diamond (ed.), Field Guide to Academic Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. (read this excerpt)
- Optional but recommended:
- subscribe to Tomorrow's Professor if you have not already done so and you are interested in teaching in the future.
- The Tomorrow's Professor Archive is also interesting to browse.
- Unorthodox dissertation format examples discussed in class:
- Dixon, D. E. (2014). Endless Question: Youth Becomings and the Anti-Crisis of Kids in Global Japan. Doctoral Dissertation submitted for the Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology, Duke University. (Interactive online dissertation written in Scalar): http://scalar.usc.edu/students/endlessquestion/index.
- Stewart, P. R. R. (2015). Indigenous Architecture through Indigenous Knowledge : Dim sagalts’apkw nisim̓. Doctoral Dissertation submitted for the Ph.D. in Architecture, University of British Columbia. (The author of this dissertation was quoted in the press as saying, "There's nothing in the rules about formats or punctuation.") (On canvas).
- Sousanis, W. N. (2014). Unflattening: A visual-verbal inquiry into learning in many dimensions. Doctoral Dissertation submitted for the Ed.D. in Education, Columbia University. (This dissertation was submitted as a graphic novel.) (On canvas).
- Visconti, A. (2015). "How Can You Love a Work If You Don't Know It?": Critical Code and Design Toward Participatory Digital Editions. Doctoral Dissertation submitted for the Ph.D. in English, University of Maryland, College Park. (This dissertation was submitted as a Web site.) http://dissertation.amandavisconti.com/
- Boese, C. (1998). The Ballad of the Internet Nutball: Chaining Rhetorical Visions from the Margins of the Margins to the Mainstream in the Xenaverse. Doctoral dissertation submitted for the Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Communication, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. (This dissertation was originally submitted as a CD-ROM.) http://www.nutball.com/dissertation/.
- Carson, A. D. (2017). Owning My Masters: The Rhetorics of Rhymes and Revolutions. Doctoral Dissertation submitted for the Ph.D. in rhetorics, communication, and information design. (This dissertation is a rap album.) https://genius.com/Ad-carson-dissertation-part-1-the-introduction-lyrics.
20 Apr (Fri): Final paper due
Final paper due at 10:30 a.m.
This is the scheduled final exam period for this course according to the registrar's office. Submitting the paper will count as the final examination for this seminar; there is no other final examination. Submit your paper via e-mail to the instructor.
Class Policies
Our Discussions
This seminar practices the "Guidelines for Dialogue" developed by students and faculty from the University of Michigan Program on Intergroup Relations. That means that we will do our best to:
- Maintain confidentiality. We want to create an atmosphere for open, honest exchange.
- Commit to learning from each other. We will listen to other and not talk at each other. We acknowledge differences among us in backgrounds, skills, interests, identities and values. We realize that it is these very differences that will increase our awareness and understanding through this process.
- Not demean, devalue, or "put down" people for their experiences, lack of experiences, or difference in interpretation of those experiences.
- Trust that people are always doing the best they can. We will give each other the benefit of the doubt. We will assume we are all trying our hardest and that our intentions are good even when the impact is not.
- Challenge the idea and not the person. If we wish to challenge something that has been said, we will challenge the idea or the practice referred to, not the individual sharing this idea or practice.
- Speak our discomfort. If something is bothering us, we will share this with the group. Often our emotional reactions to this process offer the most valuable learning opportunities.
- Step Up, Step Back. We will be mindful of taking up much more space than others. On the same note, empower ourselves to speak up when others are dominating the conversation.
- Not to freeze people in time. We are all works in progress. We will be willing to change and make space for others to do so. Therefore we will not assume that one comment or one opinion made at one time captures the whole of a person's character.
--The Program on Intergroup Relations, University of Michigan, 2012
Academic Integrity
Unless otherwise specified in an assignment all submitted work must be your own, original work. Any excerpts, statements, or phrases from the work of others must be clearly identified as a quotation, and a proper citation provided. Any violation of the School of Information's policy on Academic and Professional Integrity (stated in the Master’s and Doctoral Student Handbooks) will result in serious penalties, which might range from failing an assignment, to failing a course, to being expelled from the program. Violations of academic and professional integrity will be reported. Consequences impacting assignment or course grades are determined by the faculty instructor; additional sanctions may be imposed by the Assistant Dean for Academic and Student Affairs.
Accommodations for Students with Disabilities
If you think you need an accommodation for a disability, please let me know at your earliest convenience. Some aspects of this course, the assignments, the in-class activities, and the way we teach may be modified to facilitate your participation and progress. As soon as you make me aware of your needs, we can work with the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) to help us determine appropriate accommodations. SSD (734-763-3000; http://ssd.umich.edu/) typically recommends accommodations through a Verified Individualized Services and Accommodations (VISA) form. I will treat any information that you provide in as confidential a manner as possible.
Student Mental Health and Wellbeing
The University of Michigan is committed to advancing the mental health and wellbeing of its students. If you or someone you know is feeling overwhelmed, depressed, and/or in need of support, services are available. For help, contact Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) at (734) 764-8312 and https://caps.umich.edu/ during and after hours, on weekends and holidays, or through its counselors physically located in schools on both North and Central Campus. You may also consult University Health Service (UHS) at (734) 764-8320 and , or for alcohol or drug concerns, see http://www.uhs.umich.edu/aodresources. For a listing of other mental health resources available on and off campus, visit: http://umich.edu/~mhealth/
(tl;dr)