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 President...
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...
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...
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 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 Dr. Abdul El-Sayed - physician, epidemiologist, and newly appointed Director of the Wayne County Health, Human & Veterans Services Department, and a Ford School Towsley Policymaker in Residence - for a conversation with policymakers at the intersection of social justice and environmental concerns. Dr. El-Sayed will be joined by Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and Michigan Senator Stephanie Chang (MPP/MSW '14) to reflect on their work to address environmental injustice in Michigan and beyond, and the challenges and opportunities ahead.
Do you want to learn how science and technology policy is made? Are you interested in the social and ethical implications of developments like facial recognition, gene editing, or autonomous vehicles? Are you concerned about the increased politicization of science and research funding?
Dr. Krystal Tsosie will describe community-engaged research and describe paths forward that center Indigenous people as the agents of access for their own genomic and health data. The future of Indigenous genomics is not mere inclusion but through recognition of Indigenous genomic and data sovereignty.
Kade Crockford, the director of the Technology for Liberty Program at the ACLU of Massachusetts, will speak about technology, surveillance, and civil liberties.
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.
The remote watch party for El Panóptico Ciego is part of the Behind Walls, Beyond Discipline: Science, Technology, and the Carceral State webinar series. Q&A to follow.
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.
Kelly Gates, Anthony Ryan Hatch, Jorge Nuñez, and chair Heather Thompson comprise the second panel of the Behind Walls, Beyond Discipline: Science, Technology, and the Carceral State webinar series.
Lindsay Smith, Andrea Quinlan, Cristina Mejia Visperas, and Melissa Burch will comprise the first panel of the Behind Walls, Beyond Discipline: Science, Technology, and the Carceral State webinar series.
Keith Breckenridge (University of Witwatersrand) will deliver the opening keynote of the Behind Walls, Beyond Discipline: Science, Technology, and the Carceral State webinar series.
Long a focus of dystopian science fiction lore, the development, deployment, and utilization of robotic dogs has recently entered the mainstream, with a number of U.S. law enforcement agencies purchasing the technology and announcing early phase...
Law enforcement agencies in Michigan are increasingly using drones as a common tool for purposes including surveillance, crime prevention, and search and rescue operations. Privacy concerns loom large as drones capture images and videos of...
Predictive policing is the application of analytical software to identify likely targets for police intervention and prevent crime. The last 8–10 years has brought the application of analytical tools and artificial intelligence to enable such...
As artificial intelligence technologies proliferate in industries across the globe, governments around the world are working to regulate how and when these technologies are used.In October 2023, President Joe Biden signed the Executive Order on Safe...
