Washington Center

Technology, Equity, and Public Policy

Credits: 
4
Instructor: 
Term or Semester: 
Day and Time: 
Tuesdays, 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. PT
Quarter Dates: 
January 5 - March 9, 2021
Campus: 
UCDC
Course Number: 
UCLA Public Affairs 191 (Pending)
Category: 
Quarter Elective
Description: 

From robots to big data, social media to the gig economy, and algorithmic bias to bitcoin, technology has reshaped many aspects of our lives. In some cases, tech has presented major challenges, and in others, it has provided tools for innovative solutions that would have been unimaginable a decade ago. This course considers the relationship between technology and public policy, examining aspects of tech that demand policy interventions and asking how tech can better equip governments to effectively lead. Each week, we will consider a hot topic in tech policy, including data privacy, algorithmic bias, cybercrime, and cryptocurrency, and consider how it reflects long-standing issues like inequality, racism, and exploitation. Through the course, we will identify and develop policy ideas that regulate today’s technologies while addressing these structural challenges.

About the instructor: Professor Shelly Steward is an economic sociologist focusing on the changing nature of work in American society. An expert in labor, culture, and public policy, she holds a PhD in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley. Her research examines how people understand their position in the labor market and the economy more broadly. Her dissertation examined experiences of precarious and insecure work in the oil and tech industries. She has been a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow, a Kinder Scholar at Rice University, and an Assessment and Evaluation Fellow at UC Berkeley. Her research has been published in the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, the Journal of Consumer Culture, and the Berkeley Journal of Sociology, and she has presented her work across the US and internationally. Prior to becoming a sociologist, Shelly taught middle school science on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota as a Teach for America corps member. She holds an AB from Harvard College.

 

Course ID: 
UCDC15801W21