Social Data Analysis and Racism, Then and Now
Instructor: Francisca G. – C. Richter, PhD fxr58@case.edu
SASS 350, Section 804 undergraduate
SASS 500, Section 101 graduate
Summer – 4 Week session, 1 credit
7/6/2021 – 8/2/2021
Tue, Thu : 9:30 AM-11:00 AM
Remote-Synchronous
This course will explore the role that social science analyses of data had in shaping structural racism and why this matters today in the era of big data and social algorithms.
Drawing from K. G. Muhammad’s The Condemnation of Blackness (2019), we will explore nascent U.S. social sciences scholarship of the early 1900s linking race with crime. We will apply a graphical toolkit for causal modeling to identify the flaws in these analyses and explore the counter arguments presented by some scholars and activists. Finally, we will discuss the potential risks and benefits of social algorithms and proposed ethical frameworks to insure they serve the social good.