As thinkers, makers, and activists who work transnationally, members of GloTech@UMass are committed to engaged scholarship in and about the technologically mediated global public sphere.
Our projects contribute to digital media studies, global studies, critical tech studies, and computational social sciences.
The public conversation needs an expanded analysis of how digital oppression unfolds across national borders and how diverse, marginalized groups can design culturally meaningful interventions and mobilize around shared advocacy across borders. Holding global tech companies accountable and critiquing securitization and techno-nationalism under illiberal governments requires transnational and comparative scholarship and cross-sectoral community-building.
We research the intersection of technology and governance of digital systems. We investigate technological norms, develop alternative models for tech design and governance, and map out transnational flows of tech policy, design-thinking, and innovation across national and cultural borders.
We investigate the what, who, and how behind the reproduction of diverse forms of digital harms, biases, and oppression emerging from digital innovations. We investigate the transnational political and economic drivers of disinformation and explore ways to defund the digital entrepreneurs and political elites profiting from hate and divisiveness.
We collaborate with community leaders, tech activists, journalists, and human rights defenders. We champion bottom-up solutions that foster transnational solidarity, social justice, and racial justice worldwide – solutions that go beyond techno-legal approaches. We are committed to highlighting grassroots interventions and healing efforts across the globe.