CPS 273: Teaching & Learning Machine Ethics
Databases
The following databases are used most often by students studying Sociology and Women, Gender, and Sexuality. Use them to search for high-quality research related to your topic. Consider starting with the Social Sciences Citation Index or Sociological Abstracts.
- Anthropology Plus This link opens in a new windowThis resource is the combination of Anthropology Index and Anthropological Literature. Provides extensive worldwide indexing of journal articles, reports, commentaries, edited works, and obituaries in the fields of social, cultural, physical, biological, and linguistic anthropology, ethnology, archaeology, folklore, material culture, and interdisciplinary studies. Covers over 2500 journals, 19th century to the present. Updated quarterly.
- AnthroSource This link opens in a new windowDeveloped by the American Anthropological Association (AAA), AnthroSource brings anthropological material online to scholars and the public.
- CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online) This link opens in a new windowA comprehensive source for theory and research in international affairs. It includes working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, proceedings from conferences, books, journals and policy briefs. Covers 1991 to the present.
- EconLit (Economics Literature) This link opens in a new windowComprehensive, international, partially annotated bibliography of economics literature. Indexes over 300 journals as well as books, dissertations, working papers, and collective volumes. Covers 1969 to the present.
- Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson) This link opens in a new windowIndexes more than 400 domestic and international English-language periodicals and yearbooks. Subjects include administration, teaching methods and curriculum, literacy, and government funding. Covers 1984 to the present.
- ERIC/Education Resources Information Center This link opens in a new windowIndex to journal articles, government studies, books, dissertations, and other material on education and related fields that combines citations of sponsored reports and over 1000 journals. The ERIC database is an initiative of the U.S. Department of Education. Covers 1966 to the present.
- Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective (H.W. Wilson) This link opens in a new windowIndexes articles from English-language magazines and academic journals in a wide range of interdisciplinary fields. Covers 1907 to 1984.
- JStor This link opens in a new windowA collection of full-text articles from over 3000 scholarly journals, many dating from the nineteenth-century to the last 4 or 5 years. A growing number of titles are available through the current issues, as part of their "Current Scholarship Program". Select Advanced Search to strategically search amongst 45 disciplines. Choose PDF from within JStor to properly view and print articles. For convenience, JStor is now searchable on Facebook.
- Social Sciences Citation Index (Web of Science) This link opens in a new windowIndex to content from core journals in all areas of the social sciences. Provides lists of sources cited, plus publications citing the original article. Also known as SSCI. Covers 1900 to the present.
- Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) This link opens in a new windowIndexes over 300 English-language periodicals covering anthropology, economics, political science, psychology, social work, sociology, and related fields. Covers 1983 to the present.
- Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new windowCovers the international literature of sociology, social work, and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. Publications from 1952 - present.
Areas of Interest and Ethical Concerns
- AI/ML
- User Interfaces
- Social Media
- Privacy
- Misinformation
- Fairness/Bias
- Safety
Topic Description
This project addresses bias, especially bias relating to race and ethnicity, in dating apps.
First, we have institutions (economic and technological) playing a part in shaping how people get access to romantic and sexual relationships (and activities). They also help to remake unequal access to these relationships with the ways in which they perpetuate racial and ethnic inequalities.
Second, race and ethnicity, as I mentioned, particularly as they intersect with gender, clearly play a major role in notions of attractiveness. Racist notions also seem to be embedded in and supported by algorithms in dating apps – and the way that the apps shape users’ engagement with them.
Course Description
This course examines the idea that sex is not a natural act; instead, sex and human sexuality are socially constructed. We will consider how understandings of sexuality develop in the interactions of individuals, social groups, institutions, and the nation-state. We will examine how power—in a variety of forms—is at play in our social and cultural understandings and experiences of sex and sexuality. We will seek to examine the following questions: How is power—both historically and currently—implicated in human sexuality? Why and how does American society control sexual behavior? How is this control related to gender, race, ethnicity, and class? In our attempts to answer these questions, we will focus on the following topics: sex, gender and sexual orientation, sexual relationships, the body, race, ethnicity, the commodification of sex, reproduction and contraception, and sexual violence.