The Center for Critical Data Practices (C4CDP) is launching a seminar series titled "What Do Critical Data Practices Look Like, And How Do We Care?" In this series, participants will explore the political and ethical stakes of data work, guided by a selected text that frames each session's discussion. Our first session will engage with Michael Burawoy's seminal essay For Public Sociology, examining the social functions of data and the audiences it serves. Midas will reflect on how Burawoy’s call for a sociology that engages with the public can inform our understanding of "critical data practices". Whose data are we critiquing, and to what ends? Join us to unpack these questions, and explore what "critical" really means in the context of data practice.

Midas Nouwens is an assistant professor at Aarhus University, working in the areas of privacy, consent, and human-computer interaction. He is known for his research on how digital systems, particularly consent mechanisms under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), impact user behavior and privacy rights.

To prepare this seminar session, Midas reccomends reading the first 8 pages of Burawoy's text until the section "Thesis IV: The Exploration of Internal Complexity". Everthing below is optional. You can find the text here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4145348

The seminars are hosted in collaboration with CUPRA Cultures and Practices of Digital Technologies research programme at AU.

For any questions or requests, please contact Mariam Khaled (makh@cc.au.dk)