The insidious legacy of eugenics lives on in the techno-surveillance, algorithmic authoritarianism, and data-driven discrimination of Big Tech. This talk illuminates the throughline between the 19th century's anti-immigration and eugenics movements and our sprawling systems of techno-surveillance and algorithmic discrimination. I'll address how the AI-driven and market-based models of Big Tech are built on data that exploit women, immigrant groups, and other minoritized populations, amplifying social hierarchies and AI's predictions of majoritarian outcomes as the most probable and "ideal" futures. But it doesn't have to be this way. This talk explains how it happened and how we can fight back.
The Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program is excited to welcome STPP Alumnus and Associate Physical Scientist at the RAND Corporation, Tyler Hoard (PhD/STPP '24), for afternoon snacks and conversation. Tyler will share his academic path and current work experience, including projects related to biotechnology, AI, synthetic biology, food security, and the commercial space industry.
What does it mean to be in community? This panel brings together activists, scholars, and writers to explore connections between critical social issues—health justice, discrimination, technofascism, and surveillance—and the possibilities of grassroots response. Panelists will discuss tensions between collectivizing and collaborating: How do we negotiate care when our access to care hinges on being identified and enumerated by the state? What tactics for resistance might we use in digital communities that are subject to increased surveillance? How can we be there for and with each other?
Come join Ann Arbor AF's very first LIVE recording! This local policy podcast, co-hosted by Jessica A.S. Letaw (Ginsberg's Community-Leader-in-Residence) and Molly Kleinman (also Science, Technology & Public Policy [STPP]'s Managing Director) demystifies Ann Arbor politics through discussions of local policy and governance, inviting listeners to get informed and involved.
Small modular reactors (SMRs) and advanced nuclear technologies are gaining attention as key solutions to climate change, energy insecurity, and the growing energy needs of data centers. However, the potential expansion of the global nuclear industry introduces—and in some cases reinforces—problems that technological solutions alone will not be able to fix. To help ensure that advanced nuclear energy serves the public interest rather than predominantly corporate and geopolitical actors, we must have robust governance frameworks in place before the widespread implementation of SMRs. This presentation will highlight the findings of the recent Science, Technology, and Public Policy (STPP) program's Technology Assessment Project (TAP) report, "The Reactor Around the Corner: Understanding Advanced Nuclear Energy Futures." We will discuss our research approach, in which we use the analogical case study (ACS) method to examine historical and contemporary technology parallels. By analyzing past technologies similar in form, function, or impact, we can identify repeating social patterns and anticipate the social, environmental, ethical, equity, economic, and geopolitical implications of emerging technologies. Our analysis reveals that without robust governance frameworks, the widespread adoption of SMRs risks entrenching global disparities, privileging private interests over public good, overlooking local and Indigenous knowledge, intensifying environmental injustices, and failing to deliver on promises of local empowerment. We present policy recommendations for responsible governance of SMRs and the uranium supply chain to maximize benefits and minimize harms. This interdisciplinary collaboration between the Ford School's Science, Technology, and Public Policy (STPP) program and the College of Engineering's Fastest Path to Zero Initiative (FPTZ) in the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences demonstrates how policy and engineering expertise can be effectively integrated to address complex sociotechnical challenges.
Can technology improve the lives of Black boys? Recently, new reports, with familiar conclusions, discuss the way Black boys continue to fall behind, which is partially responsible for shrinking enrollments of Black men in college. Particularly striking are the declining numbers at HBCUs. In turning this conversation away from negative reporting toward positive action, we will explore the ways technology can intervene and provide new opportunities, pathways, and platforms for Black boys to thrive.
Karissa Kresge (MPP/STPP 2022), Executive Policy Analyst for the Public Health Administration at Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, will engage with current STPP students in an informal conversation. Students interested in learning more about health policy, policy analysis, and working at the state level are encouraged to attend.
Announcing The Reactor Around the Corner: Understanding Advanced Nuclear Energy Futures, the fourth report from University of Michigan Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program's Technology Assessment Project (TAP), in partnership with the University of Michigan's Fastest Path to Zero Initiative. The report anticipates the social, environmental, ethical, equity, economic, and geopolitical implications of widespread adoption of advanced nuclear energy technologies, especially small modular reactors (SMRs), using our innovative analogical case study approach. Join us for a live conversation with the authors—Nora Lewis, Txai Sibley, Nicholas Stubblefield, Michael Redmond, Molly Kleinman, Shobita Parthasarathy, and Denia Djokić—to discuss research findings, as well as policy recommendations for the governance of SMRs and the uranium supply chain.
This panel brings together Black feminist scholars, writers, and public intellectuals to examine how and why debates about gender, sexuality, and nationality consistently emerge as top topics on social media platforms within Black discursive communities. How do algorithms and influencer culture contribute to sowing discontent and misinformation among Black social media users? We consider the social and political implications, who ultimately benefits from these conversations, and how we can make different choices around our own engagement and participation.
Michigan League Ballroom
911 North University
Ann Arbor, MI
This event will bring together university leadership, scholars, community members and students to critically examine the convergence of artificial intelligence (AI), data center infrastructure, sustainability and climate change.
Join the Ford School’s Center for Racial Justice (CRJ) and the Trotter Multicultural Center for Unpacking AI Policy: How Does It Affect Us? Lunch will be served promptly at 11:45 am.
As Artificial Intelligence claims increasing influence over our lives, it's easy to believe AI's creeping dominance is inevitable. But is it? Join award-winning journalist Karen Hao and Patrick Barry, clinical assistant professor at the University of Michigan Law School, for an eye-opening discussion on Hao’s best-selling book, “Empire of AI.” As the first reporter to gain extensive access to OpenAI when its founder, Sam Altman, promoted it as an altruistic research non-profit, Hao has followed the company’s meteoric rise. Drawing on seven years of reporting across five continents, Hao sheds light on the hidden impacts of AI — from the exploitation of data workers in the Global South to the immense environmental costs of its energy and water consumption. Discover whose priorities are being advanced, whose voices are overlooked, and how we can work together to build a more equitable future for the world with AI. “Empire of AI” will be available for purchase from BookSweet at the event. The author will stay for a short book signing after the program.
Everything is on fire. The supports disabled people need for survival are being decimated. The robots are coming after us, harvesting our data, surveilling us, and determining who is worthy to live. What can we do? How might the wisdom of disability elders and cross-movement organizers equip us for what’s happening and what’s to come? This roundtable brings together disability culture workers, activists, writers, and scholars to think-together about disability futures.
Please join us for a virtual information session to learn about the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Graduate Certificate Program. More information about the program is available at: http://stpp.fordschool.umich.edu/graduate-certificate/. Applications are due November 1st!
Neda Atanasoski and Nassim Parvin will discuss their recent book and edited volume, Technocreep and the Politics of Things Not Seen, published by Duke University Press in May 2025. New and emerging technologies, especially those that infiltrate intimate spaces, relations, homes, and bodies, are often referred to as creepy in media and political discourses. The book introduces a feminist theory of creep, substantiating it through critical engagement with smart homes, smart dust, smart desires, and smart forests, toward dreams of feminist futures. Contributing authors further illuminate what is otherwise obscured, assumed, or dismissed in characterizations of technology as creepy or creeping. Considering diverse technologies, such as border surveillance and China’s credit system, as well as sexcams and home assistants, the volume’s essays and artworks demonstrate that the potentials and pitfalls of artificial intelligence and digital and robotic technologies cannot be assessed through binaries of seeing/being seen, privacy/surveillance, or harmful/useful.
The Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program is excited to welcome STPP Alumnus and New York State Science Policy Fellow Elana Goldenkoff (PhD/STPP '24), for coffee and conversation. Elana will share her current fellowship experience, including work at the New York State Division of the Budget and Department of Health.
Join STPP for a webinar about the importance of bringing together technical experts with civil society organizations to produce technology and technology policy that serves the public interest.
Please join the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program for "Making Technology Work For Everyone: Empowering Civil Society and Technologists to Work Together to Shape our Future," a webinar about the importance of bringing together technical experts with civil society organizations.
Please join the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program for a webinar introducing the findings of a new report, "Broadening Horizons: How STEM-in-Society Programs Train Socially Responsible Scientists, Engineers, and Policy Leaders."
The Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program is excited to welcome STPP Alumnus Scott Henry, Data Scientist at Duo Security, for coffee and conversation. Scott will share his experiences around working in the private sector in cybersecurity and responsible tech.
For the first time, two of the most popular apps in the world – TikTok and the A.I. chatbot DeepSeek – are Chinese. American legislative efforts to restrict or outright ban Chinese apps and other technologies on the grounds of national security have dominated recent headlines. During a time of political turmoil, increasing hostility towards trade with other nations, and the rush to maintain U.S. dominance over the tech industry, anti-Chinese sentiment has (re)surfaced in ways that echo earlier American anxieties about Asian labor competition and racial difference. This panel will bring together Asian American media scholars and culture creators to analyze what this climate means for our shifting technological landscape, Asian American communities, and race relations in the U.S.
"I Hope This Helps!" is a humorous, genre-bending hybrid documentary that invites viewers to ponder the evolving relationship between humanity and technology.
Please join us for a virtual information session to learn about the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Graduate Certificate Program. More information about the program is available at: http://stpp.fordschool.umich.edu/graduate-certificate/. Applications are due March 1st!
Dr. Cesar Barraza-Botet (UM PhD in Mechanical Engineering/STPP 2018), Science and Technology Policy Analyst for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), will engage with current STPP students in an informal conversation. Students will gain insight into bridging the science-policy interface to inform governments, industry, and multilateral organizations on international Energy & Climate policymaking, especially in Latin America and The Caribbean.
Join us for an event that’s more than just a celebration—it’s a call to action. In alignment with the University of Michigan’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium's 2025 theme of "Restless Dissatisfaction: An Urgent Call for the Pursuit of Justice and Equality," we invite students, staff, faculty and the greater community to a powerful and inspiring gathering.
Please join us for a virtual information session to learn about the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Graduate Certificate Program. More information about the program is available at: http://stpp.fordschool.umich.edu/graduate-certificate/. Applications are due November 1st!
