PRISM Seminar Series
The Center for Privacy and Security of Marginalized and Vulnerable Populations (PRISM), supported by the National Science Foundation, is launching a virtual seminar series to highlight work from academic, industry, policy, and community organizations, and to continue to build a community around this important topic.
Seminars will be held approximately every other month on the third Thursday, at 2pm ET / 11am PT. Zoom registration will be required. Depending on the speaker, student meetings with speakers after the talks may be available with pre-registration as well.
If you would like to nominate yourself or someone else to speak in the seminar series, please reach out to franzi@cs.washington.edu.
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Seminar Schedule
Thursday, January 16, 2025
2pm ET / 11am PT
Followed by a student meeting at 3pm ET / 12pm PT
Speaker: Rosanna Bellini
Bio: Rosanna Bellini is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at New York University, Tandon. Her research develops data-driven and engaged research methods to tackle complex societal challenges, such as technology-enabled harms. The outcomes of her research has helped to prompt legislative changes and improvements to consumer-facing financial applications, benefiting tens of millions of customers. She also helps to lead the Clinic to End Tech Abuse, a frontline service for survivors of technology-facilitated abuse, and has personally helped over 150 survivors reclaim their privacy, security, and financial freedom.
Host: Tadayoshi Kohno (University of Washington)
Zoom Registration (required): https://washington.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcqdOGorDIjGNevb9PlNBUHlbBwdyvkFyhs
Student Meeting Registration (required): https://forms.gle/huxZSh2PpXvNcrei9
Title: Decoding Abusive Adversaries for Safer Digital Systems
Abstract: Marginalized and vulnerable population groups today face threats to their digital safety that most computing systems were never designed to protect them from: those closest to them. Abusive adversaries leverage their close social and physical proximity to their target to stalk, harass, and control by taking ample advantage of standard user interfaces and ineffective anti-abuse mechanisms. I describe my research focused on intimate partner violence where I: pioneer approaches to engaging with abusive adversaries first hand across online and in-person contexts, bolster specialized tech support services for those targeted, and develop new frameworks for building abuse-resilient technologies.
Thursday, September 19, 2024
2pm ET / 11am PT
Followed by a student meeting at 3pm ET / 12pm PT
Speaker: Fabio Rojas (Virginia L. Roberts Professor of Sociology, Indiana University)
Bio: Fabio Rojas is the Virginia L. Roberts Professor of Sociology at Indiana University, Bloomington. He is also the co-editor of Contexts: Sociology for the Public, the official magazine of the American Sociological Association. His books include From Black Power to Black Studies: How a Radical Social Movement Became an Academic Discipline, Party in the Street: The Antiwar Movement and the Democratic Party after 9/11, and Theory for the Working Sociologist. His work has appeared in the American Journal of Sociology, Social Forces, and the Academy of Management Journal. He has written for The Washington Post, USA Today, The Hill, and other popular outlets.
Host: Apu Kapadia (Indiana University)
Zoom Registration (required): https://washington.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwocuiqqjguHNPXCEBUrjctOSW2E09B7-6j
Student Meeting Registration (required):https://forms.gle/uFRtG8mswnqJwrL58
Title: Black Lives Matter from a Computational Perspective
Abstract: Black Lives Matter was one of the most influential social movements in American from 2014-2020. This talk will survey recent research that uses large scale digital data to understand the movement’s birth, evolution, and impact. First, we ask: how did the “crowd” on Twitter define the movement through hashtag use in its early days? Second, how did BLM street protest bolster antiracism discourse in American culture? Third, what structural factors contributed to BLM protest? This work draws on work done with IU sociology and informatics alumni: Jelani Ince, Clayton Davis, Harry Yan & Zackary Dunivin.
Thursday, May 16, 2024
2pm ET / 11am PT
Followed by a student meeting at 3pm ET / 12pm PT
Speaker: Edo Navot (Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law, University of Florida)
Bio: Edo Navot, PhD. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law at the University of Florida. His background is in economics and sociology. Dr. Navot’s research focuses on employment discrimination, race- and gender-based pay gaps, and income and wealth inequality. Before joining the faculty of the UF, he was a labor economist at the U.S. Department of Labor where he worked on civil rights, with a focus on equal employment opportunity and discrimination. Dr. Navot has published research on how factors that reduce labor’s bargaining power exacerbate earnings inequality, particularly in fringe benefits, both in the economy in general and among females and racial minorities. He has conducted research on how employee beliefs in potential workplace discrimination may lead to self-fulfilling prophesies in employee and supervisor behavior and evaluations.
Host: Kevin Butler (Florida)
Zoom Registration (required): https://washington.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUkcuuorzgtE9UNfyjQ1OTHGqQNTFoO4Y-P
Student Meeting Registration (required): https://forms.gle/MioXZKKJBk8M5rey8
Title: Thinking systematically about race and gender-based discrimination: Connecting discrimination theory, statistical methods, and the needs of marginalized populations
Abstract: How do social scientists theorize and explain persistent disparities in employment and pay rates for marginalized and vulnerable populations? How are different theories of disparities implicitly expressed, or embodied, in different methods used to diagnose and describe disparities in group-level outcomes? This talk will substantively focus on how we explain group-level disparities in pay and employment. These disparities include phenomena like the gender pay gap (the tendency of women to earn lower salaries relative to equally qualified men), racial bias in hiring rates, the fact that women are overrepresented within “feminized” occupations like care work while underrepresented in “masculinized” occupations like engineering (and that gender pay gaps are higher in masculinized occupations), the fact that African Americans are overrepresented in occupations that predominantly require manual and menial labor, and other related issues.
Thursday, March 21, 2024
2pm ET / 11am PT
Followed by a student meeting at 3-3:45pm ET / 12-12:45pm PT
Speaker: Matt Mitchell
Matt Mitchell is a hacker and founder of CryptoHarlem. In 2021, Matt graced the cover of Newsweek magazine and was named one of America’s Greatest Disruptors. That year he was awarded a Pioneer Award by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, in 2020 named a WIRED25 by Wired magazine, and in 2017 named a Human of The Year by Vice Motherboard.
Matt is a well known security researcher, operational security trainer, and data journalist. His organization CryptoHarlem (https://cryptoharlem.com), hosts impromptu workshops teaching basic cryptography tools to the predominately African American community in upper Manhattan. Matt worked as an independent digital security/counter surveillance trainer for media and humanitarian focused private security firms. His personal work focuses on marginalized, aggressively monitored, over-policed populations in the United States. Matt sits on the Network Investment Council of Reset Tech (https://www.reset.tech/people/#network-investment-council), and the board of Action Squared Inc. ( https://actionnetwork.org/about ).
Matt is a member of the advisory board to the Open Technology Fund (https://www.opentech.fund/about/people/), the board of the NGOISAC (non governmental organization information sharing and analysis center https://ngoisac.org/) and on the board of Action Square. Matt was also an advisor to the Internet Freedom Festival, the Digital Security Exchange, Citizen Clinic at Berkeley University Center for Long Term Cybersecurity, and The 4th Amendment Center at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
Host: Elissa Redmiles (Georgetown)
Zoom Registration (required): https://washington.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJArcuqsqzkqE9Uxo9LwVI_1WA9_nYHhkpT5
Student Meeting Registration (required): https://forms.gle/X68S2TmCAZpM156m7
Title: Working with and for Community Security and Privacy
Abstract: TBD