There is one camera for every 17 people in Beverly Hills, one of the most surveilled cities in the world. Shobita Parthasarathy, professor of public policy and director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, discussed the dangers of...
Recently, Shobita Parthasarathy appeared on the Issues in Science and Technology podcast, The Ongoing Transformation, to discuss her article, "Innovation as a Force for Equity."
"As someone who is dedicated to the project of equity and justice in...
Who gets to define the ethics behind the use of technology in society? The discussion has become more pressing amid controversies related to misinformation, privacy, and algorithmic bias.
Ben Green explores this question as editor of a special...
This week, the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) named Ben Green as a non-resident fellow. He joins Shobita Parthasarathy as one of 31 fellows from across the country that represent a wide range of fields and disciplines that inform CDT's...
Jan 26, 2022Science, Technology, and Society Shorts
Shobita Parthasarathy, professor of public policy and director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy program, recently discussed how she became interested in science and technology policy on Science, Technology, and Society Shorts.
“I ended...
How are issues of equity addressed in health care innovation and in particular the patent process? Shobita Parthasarathy, professor of public policy and director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy program, addressed the question on...
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic allowed governments to roll out higher surveillance systems without pushback from citizens.
Such emergencies “can be moments where governments roll out new invasive forms of data collection and it just becomes the...
Federal lawmakers continue to seek out University of Michigan faculty members to lend their expertise and knowledge to help inform federal policy.
In the last year, 13 U-M faculty members and researchers testified at 14 congressional hearings...
The family of Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman whose cells have been used to develop numerous scientific and medical innovations, is suing a biotechnology company for selling her cells. Shobita Parthasarathy provided insight into the lawsuit.
“We are...
As police increasingly use social media for surveillance and monitoring, Shobita Parthasarathy, professor of public policy and director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, calls for legislative action to protect citizens' online...
The ethics surrounding the use of facial recognition technology are under increasing scrutiny as more law enforcement agencies utilize it. Shobita Parthasarathy, professor of public policy and director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy...
While President Biden has shown a lot of initiative for climate policy in the first months of his term, many scholars say something is missing: a carbon tax. Barry Rabe, the J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Professor of Public Policy, provided an...
Technology companies have been at the center of many public controversies recently—from hacking threats and data security to fake news and manipulating algorithms. Do the ethics of technological advancement—"tech ethics"—have any influence on the...
By Rebecca Cohen (MPP '09)
Americans’ trust in government institutions to “do the right thing” has steadily eroded since the late 1960s,1 correlated for many analysts with events such as the Vietnam War, Watergate, the ’70s oil embargo, and...
According to MLive, 100% of Michigan Senate Democrats and 71% of Michigan House Democrats have received the COVID-19 vaccine. On the other hand, 30% of Michigan Senate Republicans and 17% of Michigan House Republicans are immunized. These numbers...
Even as the rates of COVID-19 are dropping, the disease remains a threat. A need remains for COVID testing, and over-the-counter COVID-19 tests are being experimented with in the U.S. But, with these tests being taken at home, the question of how to...
As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, vaccines have allowed some freedom from the virus. But, patents on the vaccines are preventing others around the world from receiving the life saving shot. In turn, the White House has received pressure to waive...
In a recent op-ed for The Hill, Jason Owen-Smith, professor of public policy and director of the Institute for Research on Innovation and Science, calls for federal investment in leading research universities in order to promote growth and...
As vaccine rates increase across the country, interesting patterns are being noticed. Shobita Parthasarathy, professor of public policy, explained the pattern Michigan is experiencing.
“Michigan is sort of a purple, leaning blue, state and you...
A recent study from researchers at U-M concluded that vaccine hesitancy could impede a goal of herd immunity when it comes to COVID-19. Shobita Parthasarathy, a co-author of the study and director of the Ford School's Science, Technology, and Public...
The global effort to develop and distribute COVID-19 vaccines has progressed despite myriad challenges. Yet the final step—shots in arms—meets resistance among some that can't easily be overcome by science and supply chains.
Vaccine hesitancy—a...
The explosion of the prison population in the U.S. and around the world is seen by many as a crisis, as the growth is mainly attributable to high incarceration rates among low-income and minority communities. Science and technology lie at the heart...
“These kinds of technologies tend to disproportionately burden students of color who are already often assumed to be somehow deviant... and so these technologies tend to exacerbate that kind of racism by rendering it quantitative and technological...
Shobita Parthasarathy has called for serious patent system reforms in a July 31 article she authored in The Conversation. Such reforms, she said, could "include increasing opportunities for the public to participate in patent decision-making,...
Join us for a conversation on deploying science, technology, and data for the public good, with Kumar Garg, senior managing director at Schmidt Futures and former assistant director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Professor Shobita Parthasarathy.
STPP Lecture Series,
Harry A. and Margaret D. Towsley Foundation Lecture Series
Join us for a talk on global vaccine equity and health justice with Fatima Hassan, human rights lawyer, social justice activist, and the founder of the Health Justice Initiative in South Africa; and Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, Towsley Policymaker in Residence at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.
Chris Gilliard, Ursula Rao, Carolyn Sufrin, and chair John Carson comprise the third panel of the Behind Walls, Beyond Discipline: Science, Technology, and the Carceral State webinar series.
Jorge Nuñez and Courtney McClellan will discuss the film El Panóptico Ciego as part of the Behind Walls, Beyond Discipline: Science, Technology, and the Carceral State webinar series.