The Weight of Data

• • Case studies problematize whether the ‘natural/human’ or the ‘digital’ are most appropriate way for understanding what the world is really like: Is the map sufficient for the terrain? (‘Inadequacy’ of data; ‘Duplicity’ of data; ‘Innocence’ of data)
  • Consider how data informs the disciplines by which we have traditionally understood our place in the world. This is done through a series of guest lectures by figures from across the campus
  • Student-lead workshops based on their own disciplines – write a reflective essay on how their field has (or might yet be) transformed by the digital revolution
  • Summary class

• Study resources

  • Instructional methods

    • Discussion forum/Discussion Board

No eligibility requirements

Special requirements

No special requirements

This subject explores what it means for our lives to be ‘informed’ by data. The subject does this not only through a series of lectures by invited experts and more traditional seminars where students engage with key texts, but also through a series of workshops in which students are required to examine how their own academic discipline and intended field of employment might yet be transformed by the power of information – and what this means for the lives we will live.

• In-Class Test (10%)
• Reflective Presentation (20%)
• Final Invigilated Exam (30%)
• Essay (40%)