Welcome
We are delighted to welcome you to Pratt Institute for the HASTAC 2023 Conference! This conference marks the twentieth anniversary of the founding of HASTAC, convened in 2002–2003 as a community—a network—based on ideas of participation, equity, diversity, public contribution, and especially the notion that humanists, artists, social scientists, scientists, and technologists have crucial insights for our age of digital technology. Among these contributions, according to HASTAC Co-Founders Cathy N. Davidson and David Theo Goldberg, are attention to history, relationality, creativity, diversity, and social policy—values and practices resonant with the theme of HASTAC 2023: “Critical Making and Social Justice.”
By “critical making,” we imagine careful attention to how things are made, to the processes and social embeddedness of our work, and how we teach and enact those processes with others. First described as an area of “interwoven material and conceptual work” (Ratto), critical making draws upon the critical design movement and its opposition to design that “reinforces the status quo” (Dunne & Raby), especially through metrics of efficiency, optimization, and purely commercial worth (Hertz). Instead, critical design and critical making open up theoretical, speculative, and reflective space to consider the values inherent in design and making, and the value of design itself. Critical making invites questions around the “politics of design” (DiSalvo) and “the increasingly technologically and digitally mediated experience of our everyday lives, of labor in an information economy” (Ratto & Boler). It has a way of “reintroducing a sense of criticality back into post-2010 maker culture: to un-sanitize, un-smooth and re-politicize it” (Hertz). In so doing, critical making may even reflect Ruha Benjamin’s recent (2019) provocation: “Design is a colonizing project….What, I wonder, are the theoretical and practical effects of using design-speak to describe all our hopes, dreams, qualms, criticisms, and visions for change? What is gained and by whom?”
In employing the language of social justice, we recognize that “justice” is a human urge manifesting in various ways across cultures, and that many encounters with actual and historical justice systems are unfair, unequal, and corrupt. Our focus on justice is intended to create a space for critique of existing structures and practices and to highlight examples of critical making that contribute to better worlds. We also note that “social” justice converges with other forms of justice, including economic justice, racial justice, and environmental justice. Accordingly, work submitted to this conference should reflect a broad commitment to scholarship, activism, and/or creative practices that challenge oppressive power structures, including racism, capitalism, sexism, gender bias, ableism, nationalism, colonialism, and their many intersections.
We anticipated many critical contributions to this conference—critical of structures, systems, and processes that perpetuate inequality and discrimination—and the work included in this program certainly speaks to those themes, while offering calls for action and tangible responses to those issues. At the same time, we were delighted to find threads of joy, play, care, wellbeing, hope, and especially community woven throughout the work of the conference. We are reminded that these two currents, one of critique and one of creation, lie at the center of critical making, and so it may come as little surprise that the conference finds us dismantling at the same time that we are building together. Little surprise, but a welcome and urgent reminder, in any case.
We invite you to explore the wide range of topics and formats at this conference. We are honored to create a space where academics, artists, non-profits, and community groups can come together to discuss, make, and reflect on visions and tactics for creating a more just world.
The HASTAC 2023 Program Committee
Chris Alen Sula (chair), Interim Associate Provost for Academic Programs, Assessment, and Accreditation; Visiting Associate Professor, School of Information
Claudia Berger, MSLIS ‘21; Digital Humanities Librarian, Sarah Lawrence College
Deb Caponera, Assistant Professor, Associate Degrees, School of Art
Rachel Daniell, Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Information
Nick Dease, User Experience Librarian; Visiting Assistant Professor, School of Information
John Decker, Chairperson, History of Art and Design
Donna Heiland, Provost
Xinyi Li, Assistant Professor, Undergraduate Communications Design
Ted Ngai, Senior Analyst, Interdisciplinary Technology Laboratory; Visiting Associate Professor, Undergraduate Architecture
Nancy Smith, Assistant Professor, School of Information
With special assistance from
Mariah Hill, MS Data Analytics & Visualization ‘23
Tereza Chanaki, MS Museums & Digital Culture ’24
Annalise Domenighini, MS Library & Information Science ’24
Through the generosity of conference attendees, the Program Committee is delighted to announce bursary awards supporting the following participants:
Joanne Coutts (independent), organizing “You are Here! Feminist, Decolonial and Community Visualizations of Place”
Jessika Davis and Lubov McKone (Pratt Institute), co-exhibiting “Making the Desert Island Discs Dataset: Data Visceralization and How We Don’t Know What We Know”
Sid Feinberg (University of Kentucky), presenting “‘Eight Steps to Long-Term Survival’: Making Grassroots Health Infrastructure Through Information Media in the Philadelphia AIDS Crisis”
Ellen Fowles, Yasmin Keats, and KellyAnne McGuire (Open Style Lab), organizing “Shoe Utopias: Co-Designing Accessible Footwear”
Elisa H. Hamilton (Hamilton Multimedia), co-organizing “Stories as Social Justice: Amplifying Underrepresented Stories through Public Art and Oral History”
Maya Hayda, presenting “Pit Glitch”
Luke Andrew Hernandez (University of Texas Dallas), presenting “Situated Narratives: Using Visual Novel Games to Resist Hegemony”
Bianca Littlepage Morgan (independent scholar), displaying “Images of Violence and of Reconciliation: Combatting Rising Antisemitism Through Community Outreach & Historical Photography”
Veronika Anna Molnár (independent curator), presenting “Art and Environmental Racism in the United States”
Patricia Kanana Mwenda (OCAD U, Canada), exhibiting “‘She Is Not Alone!’ Afrofuturist Wearable Devices For Speculative PTSD Treatment in Kenya” and co-organizing “Critical Kinetic Wearables: A Workshop in/on Play”
Sari Nordman (artist), exhibiting “Tower: Framing Displacement”
Morgan Võ (Pratt Institute), presenting “Epistemic Justice: Through and Beyond Information Inequality”
Tansy Xiao (artist), exhibiting “The Linguistic Errantry”
For details on each session, please see Sched’s Grid view.
Thursday, June 89:00am Registration opens
(Note: For those staying at Emerson Place, registration will be open on June 7 from noon to 5pm; for later check-in, please go directly to Emerson Place.)
1:30 – 5:00pm Concurrent sessions
5:00pm Exhibition Opening (Steuben Gallery, Design Center) & Reception (Student Union)
Join us for a reception in the Student Union celebrating the opening of the conference and the exhibition in the Steuben Gallery. Refreshments will be served at the reception. The exhibition will remain open through the duration of the conference.
7:00pm Registration closes
8:30am Registration opens
8:45am Breakfast and coffee
9:30am – 12:30pm Concurrent sessions
12:30pm Lunch
1:30pm – 5:30pm Concurrent sessions
5:30pm Keynote: Sasha Costanza-Chock (Memorial Hall & online)
Sasha Costanza-Chock (she/they/ella/elle) is a researcher and designer who works to support community-led processes that build shared power, dismantle the matrix of domination, and advance ecological survival. They are a nonbinary trans* femme. Sasha is known for their work on networked social movements, transformative media organizing, and design justice. Sasha is presently the Head of Research & Sensemaking at OneProject.org and Associate Professor at Northeastern University’s College of Arts, Media, & Design. Sasha is also a Faculty Associate with the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and a member of the Steering Committee of the Design Justice Network (designjustice.org). They are the author of two books and numerous journal articles, book chapters, and other research publications. Sasha’s latest book, Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need, was published by the MIT Press in 2020.
5:00pm Registration closes
Saturday, June 10
8:30am Registration opens
8:45am Breakfast and coffee
9:30am – 11:00am Concurrent sessions
11:15am – 12:15pm Concurrent sessions (performances, screenings, games, and interactive installations)
12:15pm Lunch
1:30pm – 5:00pm Concurrent sessions (workshops) with a break (coffee and snacks)
3:00pm Conference registration closes
5:00pm HASTAC 2023 Festival
Online Sessions
If you are attending the conference remotely, a full list of online sessions is available at https://hastac2023.sched.com/audience/Online
Code of Conduct
HASTAC was founded in 2002 as a voluntary, dues-free social network with the motto: “Difference is our operating system.” Unlike much social media, HASTAC thrives because of zero tolerance for any violation of its core principles of respect and equity. Trolls are removed from the website. HASTAC does not share user data and works diligently to maintain the privacy and security of its data. The student-led HASTAC Scholars are dedicated to modeling non-hierarchical, egalitarian values for higher education.
All participants in HASTAC events, including members of the audience, must respect HASTAC’s long-standing community values and rigorous commitment to scholarship, intellectual exchange, and academic discourse that is free of bias or discrimination, especially racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, or other forms of prejudice. Unsolicited physical contact, unwelcome sexual attention, and bullying behavior are likewise unacceptable.
This code is based on HASTAC’s core values statement. In addition, attendees agree to abide by Pratt Institute’s campus safety rules and Community Standards. Pratt Institute shall have the right to eject any disorderly or objectionable person from its facilities or the campus.
HASTAC 2023 conference attendees may report instances of misconduct which occur during the conference to:
The HASTAC 2023 Program Committee
Pratt’s Department of Public Safety (718.636.3540 or 718.636.3541)
Getting to Pratt
200 Willoughby Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11205
By Subway
Take the G train to the Clinton-Washington station. Use the Washington Avenue NE exit. On Washington, walk one block north to DeKalb Avenue. Turn right onto DeKalb and proceed one block to Hall Street/Saint James to the corner gate of the Pratt campus. Signs on campus will direct you to key locations.
The G train connects to the A and C trains at Hoyt-Schermerhorn (2 stops away from campus) and the L train and Metropolitan Avenue (6 stops away). The A, C, and L trains provide service to Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens/JFK. Plan your trip at mta.info
By Bus
The B38 bus runs between the Pratt campus and downtown Brooklyn on DeKalb Avenue (westbound) and Lafayette Avenue (eastbound). Both directions stop at the intersection of DeKalb and Flatbush Avenues in Downtown Brooklyn, near the B Q and R lines at the DeKalb Station. The bus ride takes approximately 12–20 minutes, with buses every 17–20 minutes. All NYC buses are wheelchair accessible, and require a MetroCard or OMNY contactless fare payment. Plan your trip at mta.info
Walking from the conference hotel
From the intersection at DeKalb and Flatbush Avenues in downtown Brooklyn (near the conference hotel), it is an approximately 1 mile (20 minute) walk on DeKalb Avenue to the Pratt campus. The walk is slightly uphill going toward campus. Fort Greene Park and various restaurants and shops are along the way.
Citi Bike
NYC’s public bike sharing system has stations near the Pratt campus and downtown Brooklyn. For more information, visit citibikenyc.com
A partial list of Julie’s scholarship (taken from her Wikipedia page): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_Thompson_Klein
Books:
Interdisciplinarity: History, Theory, and Practice. Wayne State University Press. 1990. ISBN 0-8143-2088-0.
Crossing Boundaries: Knowledge, Disciplinarities, and Interdisciplinarities. University of Virginia Press. 1996. ISBN 978-0-8139-1679-8.
Humanities, Culture, and Interdisciplinarity: The Changing American Academy. SUNY Press. 27 October 2005. ISBN 978-0-7914-6577-6.
Creating Interdisciplinary Campus Cultures: A Model for Strength and Sustainability. John Wiley & Sons. 9 December 2009. ISBN 978-0-470-57315-0.
Transdisciplinarity: Joint Problem Solving among Science, Technology, and Society: An Effective Way for Managing Complexity. (editor). Birkhäuser. 6 December 2012. ISBN 978-3-0348-8419-8.
Interdisciplining Digital Humanities: Boundary Work in an Emerging Field. University of Michigan Press. 2015. ISBN 978-0-472-07254-5.
Articles:
"Interdisciplinarity and complexity: An evolving relationship." structure 71 (1984): 72.
"Blurring, cracking, and crossing: Permeation and the fracturing of discipline." Knowledges: Historical and critical studies in disciplinarity (1993): 185-214.
"Prospects for transdisciplinarity." Futures 36.4 (2004): 515-526.
"Integrative learning and interdisciplinary studies." Peer Review 7, no. 4 (2005): 8-10.
"A platform for a shared discourse of interdisciplinary education." JSSE-Journal of Social Science Education 5, no. 4 (2006).
"Afterword: the emergent literature on interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research evaluation." Research Evaluation 15, no. 1 (2006): 75-80.
"Evaluation of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research: a literature review." American Journal of Preventive Medicine 35, no. 2 (2008): S116-S123.