New Seminar Series 2024/25: "What Do Critical Data Practices Look Like, and How Do We Care?"
The center for Crititcal Data Practices are pleased to invite all to participate in a seminar series exploring critical data practices and their relationship to care, framed around the questions: What do critical data practices look like, and how do we care? The series is hosted in collaboration with CUPRA Cultures and Practices of Digital Technologies research program.
During this series invited guests will share their insights and experiences by opening each session with a brief presentation of their own practices. Together, we will unpack the concept of critical practice, viewing it as a form of care in the context of working with data.
Dates for the upcoming three events and guests:
- 9 October – With Midas Nowens: Critical Data Practices for Whom and for What?
- 25 October – with Rikke Jensen: Staying with the Problem: Situating Data(fication) in Everyday life Towards Designing for Alternative, Sustainable Futures.
- 27 November – Reading group open to all
Each session will include a text which will be discussed. Find the texts in the event calendar as we move closer to the dates.
The title of this seminar series draws inspiration from Craig Dalton and Jim Thatcher’s 2014 article, "What Does a Critical Data Studies Look Like, and Why Do We Care?" published in Society + Space (find the text here). Their work was an early articulation of the emerging field of critical data studies, which, at the time, urged a deeper examination of data during the height of Big Data rhetoric. The article outlined guiding principles for the critical study of data—a call that remains just as relevant today as it was ten years ago.
As the importance of critical approaches to data continues to grow, this seminar series will serve as a space to explore how criticality is present not only in how we study data, but also in how we practice and care for it. Through these discussions, we aim to reflect on how our practices engage with critical theory and responsible data use.
Each seminar will feature invited guests who will share their practice and propose a reading for the group to engage with. Together, we will explore these important questions: What does it mean to engage critically with data? And, most importantly, how do we care in and for the process and its various elements?
The seminars are organised together with CUPRA Cultures and Practices of Digital Technologies research programme at AU. We look forward to your participation and the rich discussions to come. If you would like to present your practice and respond to the questions of the seminar series, please contact Mariam Khaled (makh@cc.au.dk).