Book Review: Data Feminism

This book review critiques Lauren F. Klein and Catherine D'lgnazio's Data Feminism (2020). Klein and D'lgnazio take a visual approach to provide a synopsis—underpinned by social and political commentary—that explores the avenues through which data science and data ethics shape how contemporary technologies exploit injustices related to race and gender. Klein and D'lgnazio offer examples of this exploitation, such as the discriminatory surveillance apparatus that relies on racial profiling tactics. These examples are emboldened by the use of contemporary data strategies that—on the surface—strive to achieve a more equitable and ‘neutral’ hierarchal society. This review examines the text’s visual approach to demonstrating institutional inequities and the authors’ acknowledgement of their own privilege, specifically the role they play in upholding the oppressive systems they seek to dismantle through collaboration and intersectional analysis.

The Information Infrastructure of Search Engines: A Content Analysis of Covid-19 Immunization Information Online

After the World Health Organization declared the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) a global pandemic in March 2020, they cautioned of another outbreak: an “infodemic.” This study examines how online search engines are influencing the global spread of immunization information about COVID-19. It aims to address the various ways in which search technology is shaping users’ perceptions of the pandemic and to measure the credibility of the sources they provide.

The Archival Wave: Communities Represented By & Constructed In K-Pop Fan Archives

The Internet has democratized archiving in new ways. A dominant form of the new digital archive is the fan archive, which seeks to preserve and make accessible highly specific sections of popular culture. The will to archive is driven by affect and fans help to foster a sense of devotion and representation through their archival work. By analysing the role Korean pop (K-pop) fan archives have played in fostering the Korean wave, this paper will explore how archives not only represent communities but also construct their own. In doing so, it suggests emerging archival practices arise most prominently in the affective space, unbound by traditionalism.

Seeing Data, Feeling Data: The Visual Language of Numbers in Mona Chalabi’s Instagram Infographics

In this paper, I explore the work of data journalist Mona Chalabi, whose data visualizations on Instagram represent a confluence of art, data, and online multimedia. Through her data visualizations, Chalabi makes use of the affordances of Instagram—its audience, its format, its interactivity—to bring to light various critical statistics about social justice issues. In bringing together Instagram and data journalism, Chalabi's data visualizations embody a bold and unique way of enacting digital social justice activism.

Enter the Matrix: What the new brain-computer interfaces teach us about agency, privacy, and human subjectivity

Within the last decade, the global brain-computer interface (BCI) industry has experienced significant economic growth and captured the public’s imagination through enthusiastic coverage in the popular media. Responding dialectically to this growing public discourse, this paper overviews the social, ethical, and philosophical aspects of BCIs that pose the greatest concern for information policymakers. By reading the industry’s techno-economic trends against contemporary critical philosophy, I argue that these technologies enable new “posthuman” forms of surveillance and control that challenge democratic notions of freedom, privacy, and equality.

“A Human Face”? The Social Movement for Migrant Farm Workers’ Rights in Canada during COVID-19

With this paper, I explore the recent struggles of migrant farmworkers in Canada in the context of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. I investigate how media depictions and social-network- platform-based migrant-rights activism are framed and deployed to push for increased health and workplace protections and for full immigration status for migrant farmworkers. My analysis is grounded Sareeta Amrute's (2019) work in her article "Of Techno-ethics and Techno-affects”, in which she considers digital labour through the lens of affect and feminist theories of attunement to propose new ways of approaching ethical dilemmas between people and the technologies they create and use. I argue that this digital social justice movement — surrounding the struggles of migrant farmworkers during COVID-19 — reflects the complexities of migrant bodies and the tension between visibility, invisibility, and obfuscation in service of status and safety. I question whether those two things (being ‘seen’ and being safe) are at odds in this context.

Personal Information Protection and Digital Technologies in Ontario Schools

Ontario K-12 classrooms increasingly use digital applications and platforms. Consequently, private companies collect more personal information, posing a potential threat to student privacy. Current privacy legislation does not specifically address education technology or its use by children, and current policies and practices do not sufficiently support schools and teachers. Because educational practices and legislative compliance are variable, Ontario schools cannot provide students with consistent personal information protection. This brief considers a privacy pledge, provincial legislation, and a Ministry of Education commission as policy alternatives. In the interest of supporting student privacy, adapting to changing conditions, and providing both clear standards and flexibility to stakeholders, this brief recommends that a Ministry of Education commission be created to review and approve digital applications and platforms for classroom use.

Mary Leslie: The Journey of A Lost Canadian Author

This paper examines the life of a Canadian writer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries named Mary Leslie who experienced moderate success as an author. Despite her numerous efforts to write and publish stories, she failed to gain a public readership and was almost entirely forgotten by history. Her single novel is impossible to find and is ignored by both literary and Canadian historians alike in spite of its unique depiction of mid-nineteenth century rural Ontario and its unconventional perspective of class, gender, and romance of her time. This paper follows Leslie’s transatlantic journey within the literary world to provide a perspective on the experiences of Canadian women, their barriers, and areas of opportunity that could have afforded them success. By drawing heavily on the analysis of archival material, including correspondence, financial records, published and unpublished manuscripts, a vibrant woman with a passion for storytelling is revealed.

Commemoration as reconciliation: Indigenous history and Canada’s heritage designation system

In September 2020, the Canadian federal government designated the residential school system as an event of national historic significance and two former residential school buildings as national historic sites. They joined over 2,150 other places, people, and events that have been certified as part of Canada’s official historical narrative – the majority of which celebrate the nation’s imperialist history and silence Indigenous peoples. However, public representations of historic injustices that honour victims have the power to disrupt laudatory versions of the past and foster reconciliation. This paper will examine the history of Canada’s commemorative efforts and its effect on the nation’s collective memory, before exploring how the heritage designation framework can be decolonized in a way that respects the needs and desires of Indigenous peoples.

An Ethic of Care: Interrogating the Need for Care in the Archives

Using a mixture of personal experience and frameworks presented by Caswell and Cifor (2016), this essay explores the tangible ways that archival spaces can and should account for the affective responses of their user groups. Drawing on a case study at Algoma University, care work is demonstrated to be an imperative element for just, engaged, and enriched archival service.