Technology, Culture, and Power Speaker Series

Join Stanford PACS and the Cyber Policy Center for a monthly gathering that explores critical insights on the intersections and implications of technology and society. The Technology, Culture, and Power Speaker Series is a thought-provoking forum on the Stanford campus featuring leading experts and scholars examining the interactions of digital technologies, culture, and inequality.

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Thursday, October 3, 2024

Vent: Disability Distributive Justice and Algorithms for Ventilator Allocation

We are joined by Mara Mills, a leading voice in disability studies and digital technology. During this talk, Professor Mills will explore the complex ethical and social debates surrounding ventilator allocation during the COVID-19 pandemic and advocate for a disability informed approach to justice and equality.

Thursday, November 7, 2024

Matrix, Environment, Atmosphere: How Mother Became a Medium

We are joined by Hannah Zeavin, scholar, writer, editor, and Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley in the Department of History, as she explores how midcentury metaphors of “hot” and “cold” mothers shaped psychological studies, media theory, and the modern discourse on parenting, race, and neurodivergence.

Thursday, December 5, 2024

Fair or Equal? Rethinking Participatory Research on Technology and Marginality

We are joined by Dr. Seeta Peña Gangadharan, Associate Professor of Media and Communications at LSE, who explores the critical distinction between fair and equal participation in community-oriented technology research. In her talk, Dr. Gangadharan examines how collaborative approaches to studying the impacts of sociotechnical systems on marginalized communities can deepen our understanding of fairness in research participation.

Thursday, January 9, 2025

Fractional Institutions: How Blockchain: Became Social Infrastructure

We are joined by Dr. Anne L. Washington, Director of the Digital Interests Lab and Associate Professor of Data Policy at New York University to discuss how blockchain became social infrastructure. Blockchain has democratized administrative record-keeping, enabling anyone to become their own archival institution. Communities underserved by trusted authorities have embraced digital ledgers built on blockchain infrastructure, especially cryptocurrency. Yet, regulation of digital assets often overlooks these cases, marginalizing the financial needs and technical skills of these populations. Dr. Washington explores how exclusion from existing institutions has led some to claim that the mysterious inventor of bitcoin is female or that Satoshi is Black, and why open data systems thrive when institutions fail.

Thursday, February 6, 2025

The Hack and Leak: The Rise of New Hacktivist Tactics

We are joined by Gabriella (Biella) Coleman to discuss the rise of new hacktivist tactics. Drawing on 15 years of research across diverse hacker communities, Coleman explores how Anonymous transformed “hack and leak” operations from an accidental discovery into a deliberate whistleblowing tool. Through this case study, Coleman proposes a broader methodological approach: “recursive micro-historical work.” This technique revisits completed research with fresh questions and perspectives, sparking new insights and rounds of investigation. Her talk reveals how this now-ubiquitous tactic emerged through activist experimentation and the growing collaboration between journalism and hackers, rather than from technical innovations alone.

Thursday, April 10, 2025

Niall Docherty

Thursday, March 13, 2025

Our Vision Is a World in which Al Evaluates Al: Al Safety as a Space Between Fields

Join us for a discussion with Gil Eyal and Anna Thieser on the evolving landscape of AI safety. Analyzing 168 job postings from the career platform 80000hours.org, this talk challenges the notion of AI safety as a field moving toward fixed professional boundaries. Instead, Thieser and Eyal explore AI safety as an interstitial network, bridging academia, industry, government, and nonprofit sectors.

Made possible with support from the Humanities Seed Grant from Stanford Public Humanities