Event
In 2020 the world faced more than one acute crisis as the COVID-19 pandemic shaped global uprisings in response to the murder of George Floyd, spurred increased anti-Asian rhetoric and hate crimes, and compounded the rising hold of both neoliberal and far-right politics. Already disadvantaged social groups became more vulnerable as the virus made physical and communal spaces of support dangerous. Yet, from these conditions, and through the innovative use of digital technologies, we observed the expansion and development of collective struggles and communities of care, thus providing the essential infrastructures for navigating crises, coping with traumas, and rebuilding communities. This work is among the most valuable legacies of the global crises and ought to be carefully documented and studied.
Jointly organized by the Center on Digital Culture and Society (CDCS) and the Media, Inequality & Change Center (MIC), the symposium “Digital Activism in Pandemic Times” represents our ongoing endeavor to help promote a public culture of documenting and studying civic engagement and social justice struggles during the COVID-19 pandemic. Invited speakers will examine how individuals and communities mobilize for civic activism and mutual care, build solidarities and collective identities, fight racism, xenophobia and hate, and struggle for social and racial justice through mundane and creative uses of digital media and communication.
Schedule
3:15-4:00 pm Welcome Reception, Plaza Lobby
4:00 pm Welcoming Remarks, Plaza Lobby
Sarah J. Jackson, Co-Director, Media, Inequality & Change Center
and Guobin Yang, Director, Center on Digital Culture and Society
4:15-5:30 pm Panel 1: “Hyper-local, digital unbound organizing", Room 500
- Moderator: Zoe (Mengyang) Zhao, CDCS Doctoral Fellow
Speakers:
- Danielle Brown, University of Minnesota, “Still Fighting for Justice: Black Lives Matter and the Challenges of Activism on Ground Zero”
- Elisabetta Ferrari, University of Glasgow, “Solidarity in the (post)pandemic: latency and immediacy in mutual aid activism”
- Mara Mills, New York University, “How to be Disabled in a Pandemic”
5:30-6:45 pm Panel 2: “Digital Solidarities, Labor, & the Global”, Room 500
- Moderator: Kinjal Dave, MIC Doctoral Fellow
Speakers:
- Paula Chakravartty, New York University, "Essential Workers and Digital Revolts: Reflections on Labor Excess“
- Rachel Kuo, University of Illinois, “Feminist Media-Making and Building Collective Politics”
- Sarah Shugars, Rutgers University, “Pandemics, Protests, and Publics”
See more info about the speakers and center directors here.