Siva Vaidhyanathan

Siva Vaidhyanathan, Ph.D.

University of Virginia
@sivavaid
MITH Conference Room
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
12:30 pm

Who is watching? Why should we worry? These questions, among others, are asked by SIVA VAIDHYANATHAN, Professor of Media Studies at the University of Virginia, in his recently published tome The Googlization of Everything — and Why We Should Worry. Using Google Street View as the prime example and case study, Dr. Vaidhyanathan explores the ways and means through which Google engineers and justifies its systems of surveillance around the world. Despite proclaiming cultural sensitivity, Google engages in a “one-size-fits-all” model of privacy – and the defaults are always set to Google’s advantage. On Tuesday, May 3rd, at 12:30, Dr. Vaidhyanathan will deliver a talk as part of the Digital Dialogue series at the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH). In addition to discussing his book, Dr. Vaidhyanathan will introduce the notion of “infrastructural imperialism” to describe how Google goes about managing its relations with users and states around the world.

A continuously updated schedule of talks is also available on the Digital Dialogues webpage.

Unable to attend the events in person? Archived podcasts can be found on the MITH website, and you can follow our Digital Dialogues Twitter account @digdialog as well as the Twitter hashtag #mithdd to keep up with live tweets from our sessions. Viewers can watch the live stream as well.

All talks free and open to the public. Attendees are welcome to bring their own lunches.

Contact: MITH (mith.umd.edu, mith@umd.edu, 301.405.8927).