This course engages students with fundamental questions of justice in relation to data and computing in American society. Data collection, visualization, and analysis have been entangled in the struggle for racial and social justice because they can make injustice visible, imaginable, and thus actionable. Data has also been used to oppress minoritized communities and institutionalize, rationalize, and naturalize systems of racial violence. The course examines key sites of justice involving data (such as citizenship, policing, prisons, environment, and health).

Comparing the experience of three out of five ethnic groups (e.g. African Americans, Asian Americans, Chicano/Latino, European Americans, and Native Americans) we shall examine historically how each people entered American society and built communities and transformed their cultures in the process. Students will be introduced to the sociological perspective, characteristic methods of research, and such key concepts as culture, community, class, race, social change, and social movements.