The Digital Studies Institute at the University of Michigan is excited to announce its second annual Digital IDEAS Summer Institute.

Digital Ideas 2022- Critical Access: Technology & Disability Justice

Drawing on the acronym Inclusion-Diversity-Equity-Access-Success, each year’s program focuses on a new pressing issue at the intersection of technology and social justice. In 2021 we launched DISCO: The Digital Inquiry, Speculation, Collaboration, & Optimism Network, and in 2022 we will explore the Critical Access movement and the relationships between technology and disability justice.

Presented entirely online, over the course of eight days (spread comfortably across two weeks, from July 11-22, 2022), cohort members will participate in keynote lectures, panels, methodologies workshops, and group discussions. As always, Digital IDEAS seeks to explore the ways that the digital perpetuates existing inequalities and envision a new anti-ableist, anti-racist, intersectionally inclusive future through a nuanced speculative, experimental, and critical lens. This online summer institute will provide critical digital studies training and support collaborative projects that center on anti-ableist, anti-racist, feminist, LGBTQ-affirming, and practices.

This year’s Digital IDEAS will take place online through workshops, lectures, and group discussions.

Our speakers areas of interest include black digital feminism, ethnic studies + social media, art practice + artificial Intelligence, accessibility + the rhetoric of disability, and more.

Our goal is to create a close cohort of participants committed to engaging in a week of community-building, skill-sharing, and rigorous theoretical discussion.