Call For Participants
Hackademia: empirical studies in
computing cultures
A Digital Cultures
Research Lab (DCRL) Summer School
August 28th – September 2nd,
2016
Leuphana University
Curated
by
Paula
Bialski, Leuphana University
Gabriella
Coleman, McGill University
Marcell
Mars, Leuphana University
Background
Studying
digital media today means studying those technologists—hackers,
security resarchers, game developers, system administrators, and
designers—who create and maintain the digital worlds we live in.
How much agency lies in the hands of programmers, coders, and
engineers to create our digital worlds is still up for debate,
yet this much is true: various hacking and related subcultures
form critical nodes of practice that help shape and condition
the contemporary technologies we use everyday. Whether it is an
analyst or coder implementing algorithms at a large financial
institution, a group of designers working on improving the user
interface for a cryptographic tool, a privacy team securing a
browser, a developer coding her own app, cryptographers working
on an open source anoymized system, a programmer working on a p2p file-sharing platform, hackers buying and
selling zero days in a grey market, a team of system
administrators at Google working to scale up services, a
journalist-coder developing visualization tools, indie game
developers seeking to write a politically minded game, or a
hacker-leaker whistleblowing to salavage privacy - all have
something to say about how digital technology can and should be
created.
These
technology workers/experts are now central to every field of
social, political, and economic import. They secure our
communications networks; shape the design and portals we use to
connect to our banks, our friends, our loved ones, our
colleagues, our business partners; inform us about the
activities of our governments; design novel currencies;
exfiltrate intellectual property and proof of wrongdoing from
corporate actors; offer us alternative ways of organizing our
political voices whether through political projects or games;
function as conduits and warriors between nations; and allow us
to confront the laws we don’t like – through democratic
engagements, as in the Free Software movement, or tools that
enable outright circumvention.
This is
an ideal time to understand and ultimately appraise their
activities, actions, their desires, and intentions. While an increasing number of scholars –
ethnographers, cultural anthropologists, sociologists, and media
historians – are undertaking the study of hacker cultures, there are many methodological questions to pose and
explore: How much technical knowledge is necessary to study the
worlds of computing and programming? How does one gain access
to secret nooks of hacking or corporate sites – whether a
security company, gaming outfit, or blackhat computer forum –
where codes, designers, and hackers labor? How is the study of
hackers similar and different to the study of other experts such
as scientists? As participant observers, how can we fully
understand the engineering culture of the hackers we are
studying, and what shortcuts in our methods must be taken in
order to create an understanding?
Who
Should Apply?
This
summer school invites doctoral students in the field of
ethnography, cultural anthropology, media studies, software
studies, sociology, science, technology studies, history, or
other, who are currently working on a dissertation on the
life-worlds, practices, cultures, or platforms of hackers.
Hackers here are understood broadly as programmers, coders,
pirates, and computer engineers of all shapes and forms – and do
not necessarily have to be engaged in illegal or subversive
activity or self identify as hackers. Applicants who are
struggling with field entry, are learning to code, or seek to
expand their methods, are particularly welcome.
Who Will Attend?
This
summer school will provide a dialogue between hackers and
academics. As such, we will additionally invite a number of
hackers, coders, programmers, and technologists. These guests
will lead sessions around the topic of field entrance, knowledge
transfer, work organization and hacker communication practices,
feminist critiques, and standards/protocols. Keynote speakers
will also provide evening lectures, and help lead sessions.
Where and when
will this take place?
The Hackademia summer school will take
place at the Digital Cultures Research Lab (DCRL), Leuphana
University in Luneburg, Germany (30 minutes away from Hamburg),
between August 28th – September 2nd,
2016.
How to apply:
Please
submit your CV along with a 500-word abstract of your
dissertation, and a 500-word explanation on why you would like
to attend this summer school. The deadline for applications for
the summer school is January 4th, 2016. Please email your applications (compile into one
PDF) to bialski@leuphana.de
All
applicants will be informed about the selection of participants
in mid-February.
The working language of the
summer school will be English; therefore, a sufficient
understanding of English is expected.
There is no participation
fee. The organizers will cover accommodation costs. We have a
limited amount of need-based travel funding available. Please
indicate in your application letter if you wish to apply for
travel funding.
For further information on the DCRL, please
visit:
http://cdc.leuphana.com/structure/digital-cultures-research-lab/project/research