Contemporary social and political infrastructure is increasingly powered by algorithms and algorithmic systems that are widely used in everything from financial markets to healthcare, to social media, to policing.  Oftentimes, however, algorithms operate as "black boxes": not only they are corporate secrets but also their workings are obscure to the general population, making it difficult to discover and account for the algorithmic biases and their material effects on different social groups. This workshop will invite participants to engage, both in a theoretical and hands-on manner, with the following questions: What is an algorithm and how does it work? How are algorithmic systems built and employed? What concepts can adequately account for the workings of algorithmic power and governance? And finally, what are the implications of algorithmic biases and regulation for different groups and what kind of models of collective politics are needed to tackle them?

The workshop is part of the Herr*Krit summer school, a critical summer university from July 23-27 in Kassel.

The workshop will be co-facilitated by an interdisciplinary team: Goda Klumbyte, a PhD candidate at the Gender/Diversity in Informatics Systems work group at the University of Kassel; interdisciplinary designer Carmen K.M. Lam; front-end/software developer Liselot Ramirez; Jennifer Stoll, a PhD candidate at the Sociology of Diversity department at the University of Kassel; and dr. Pinar Tuzcu, who holds a postdoc position and teaches at the Department of Sociology of Diversity at the University of Kassel.

Read more about the workshop and the summer school.