Postgraduate Studentships - Search for funding opportunities.
Postgraduate Studentships - Search for funding opportunities.
Study Details: MA 1 year 3 months full-time
MA Internet Equalities explores how power relations are organised, embedded and perpetuated in internet technologies, and how they can be organised or challenged through critical, creative and activist practice.
MA Internet Equalities explores how power relations and structures of oppression are organized, embedded and perpetuated by internet technologies. It will equip you with critical and technical tools to understand and apply principles of equality in technology research and development, so you can contribute to making the internet and society more equal. We define internet equalities as socio-technical relations that explicitly oppose discrimination on the grounds of race, class, gender, gender identity, sexuality, age, belief or ability. The course will ensure you are proactive in confronting social problems, facilitating greater diversity of all kinds and reducing the risk of destructive outcomes that can be brought about by unethical technologies.
The course offers a choice of units that support several career pathways, e.g.:
The course culture is collaborative, open and participatory with an emphasis on peer support and community. You will join a rich research environment at the Creative Computing Institute and work alongside cutting-edge practitioners and researchers working at the intersection of art and design, technology development and ethics.
You will explore a range of interrelated theories including Digital Intersectionality, Post-colonial Science and Technology Studies, Digital Feminism and Queer Theory. You will learn methods including Participatory Action Research, Critical Art, Design and Technical Practice, Feminist, post-colonial Human Computer Interaction, Iterative/Experimental Design and Digital Ethnography.
You will work on practical projects and interventions that inform and are informed by the theories and methods taught, positioning you to enter industry as a practitioner or to pursue a research career through PhD progression in this area.
An applicant will normally be considered for admission if they have achieved an educational level equivalent to an honours degree in either the broad field of science and technology studies, computer science, data science, computing, a joint computer sciences and arts/humanities degree, or a closely related subject. Or, from a creative discipline with substantial computational practice such as:
Educational level may be demonstrated by:
Honours degree (named above);
Possession of equivalent qualifications in a design-related or creative discipline;
Prior experiential learning, the outcome of which can be demonstrated to be equivalent to formal qualifications otherwise required. Your experience is assessed as a learning process and tutors will evaluate that experience for currency, validity, quality and sufficiency;
Or a combination of formal qualifications and experiential learning which, taken together, can be demonstrated to be equivalent to formal qualifications otherwise required.
Applicants without the required qualifications, but with professional experience may be eligible to gain credit for previous learning and experience through the AP(E)L system.
For fees and funding information, please see website
Students from this course will be well positioned to enter industry as practitioners who can build more equitable products and businesses, or pursue a research career through PhD progression in this area.
Graduates will be:
Graduates will be well placed to work in the following areas:
Term 1 Units:
Intersectional Internets (20 Credits)
In this unit you will explore how power relations are organised, embedded and perpetuated in internet technologies, and how this can be resisted. You will examine structures of oppression including hetero-patriarchy, capitalism, colonialism and white supremacy and the ways they intersect with each other. You will learn how scholars and creative practitioners have used frameworks such as digital intersectionality and post-colonial science and technology studies to push back against these power relations. You will address an internet equality by reviewing and critiquing current discourses and completing a practical intervention.
Feminist Coding Practices (20 credits)
In this unit you will be introduced to free and open source culture and software, considering how feminist approaches can frame the practice of coding (such as generative code and feminist chatbot). This unit has the explicit aim of acquiring basic coding skills within a community of practitioners and ensuring you develop a foundation to tackle the rest of the course and orient your coding skills towards ethical technology development
Term 2 Units:
Computational Inequalities (20 Credits)
Building on the feminist computational practices unit, this practical unit explores computational bias in the context of surveillance capitalism, big data and artificial intelligence. Through supervised studio/lab practice, technical workshops, seminars and independent study, you will learn critical and computational approaches to address forms of exploitation, discrimination and bias that are reinforced by machine learning systems and the data they are trained on. You will explore alternative, crowdsourced and open forms of data and their potential in creative ethical technology development. You will develop a technical prototype and provide accompanying reflective documentation.
Designing for Responsible Innovation (20 Credits)
This unit incorporates workshops and industry visits to explore the moral and business cases for responsible business and innovation. You will hear from leading experts and practitioners about the history and current landscape of workplace equality. You will critically analyse the role of responsible innovation in building a more equal society, considering its place and scope within small start-ups and global corporations. You will present a proposal for a business, policy or other intervention that foregrounds responsible innovation or workplace equality.
Term 3 Units:
Platform Potentials (20 Credits)
In this unit you will explore the role of internet platforms, cultures and communities in bringing about social change. The topic will be introduced through theoretical readings and discussions, as well as practical case studies. You will hear from artists, activists and initiators of online movements and examine current practices of online community empowerment, collective resistance, subversion and activism. You will explore tactics and goals of internet activism, and consider their value and effectiveness at intervening in dominant political orders.
Methods for Equitable Technology Development (20 credits)
Supported by seminars, workshops and exploratory practice, this unit will distil a methodological framework for engaging and experimenting with internet equalities and ethical technology development. Methods covered will include Social and Participatory Design, Feminist, Post-colonial and Anarchist Human Computer Interaction, Critical Art/Design/Technical Practice, Iterative/Experimental Design and Digital Ethnography. You will test methods in class and through independent creative practice and present a written critique of the methods learned throughout the unit.
Term 4 Units:
Final Major Project (60 Credits)
Your final major project will take the form of a dissertation, business proposal, speculative design, critical art and design or technical prototype that advances internet equality.
Start your creative future at University of the Arts London About University of the Arts London (UAL) University of the Arts London (UAL) is hos...
