upcoming
The BCaT Lab hosts several events each semester, alongside open lab hours between 10am - 3pm from Tuesday to Thursday. If you’re interested in being active with BCaT, explore what events we’re hosting below or subscribe to our Google Calendar to be the first to know what we’re planning each month.
TRYING TO JOIN an event?
For all the events that use Zoom, we use the same link. To join an event, click below.
BCaT Calendar
Want to learn more about an event? Click the calendar to see details about each event for that day!
ABJ Workshop: Creating Digital Zines
This workshop, led by Dr. Sharla Berry, will explore the creation of information Digital Zines. Zines are homemade miniature magazines, devoted to specialized subject matter.
Join us in the BCaT Lab (Skinner 3115), or register to join via Zoom here!
ABJ Speaker Series - Platform Extractivism: Data Work and the People Powering AI
As a part of our speaker series, Dr. Julian Posada, Assistant Professor of American Studies for Yale University, will be discussing the humans behind artificial intelligence. Topics such as the dynamics between human labor and data production, digital ethics, and more will be covered.
This talk will be in Skinner 0200, or register to join via Zoom using this link.
Following the talk, join us upstairs in the BCaT Lab (Skinner 3115) for our reception!
ABJ Speaker Series - Disabling Intelligences: Legacies of Eugenics and How we are Wrong About AI
Rua Williams, Assistant Professor in the School of Applied and Creative Computing at Perdue University, will discuss the ties between the history of eugenics and the current development of artificial intelligence.
Join us in the BCaT Lab (3115 Skinner).
Registration link to join the webinar via Zoom forthcoming.
ABJ Workshop: Critical Geographies and Story Maps
Led by Alisa Hardy, this workshop will explore the use of digital tools to narrate and illustrate critical geographies. We will explore the use of tools, such as ArcGIS StoryMaps, as a way to express individual and communal stories centering spaces and places.
You may join us in the BCaT Lab (Skinner 3115), or register to join via Zoom here.
The Injustice of Fairness: Algorithmic Reparation and the Case for Redress!
Led by Dr. Apyrl Williams and Dr. Jenny Davis, these authors will discuss their latest publication: The Injustice of Fairness: Algorithmic reparation and the Case for Redress.
Join us in the BCaT Lab (Skinner 3115)!
Registration link to join the webinar via Zoom forthcoming.
ABJ Workshop: Queering AI
Led by Halim Madi, this workshop will explore how scholarship from marginalized epistemologies, such as queer studies theorizations, may inform critical inquiry surrounding AI.
You may join us in the BCaT Lab (Skinner 3115), or register to join via Zoom here.
ABJ Workshop: Audio Mixing, Podcasts, & Narratives
Led by Sylvie Carlos, this workshop will explore tools enabling audio mixing, podcasting, and sharing oral narratives within digital humanities research.
ABJ Workshop: Alternative Archives
Led by writer, memory worker, and archivist, keondra bills freemyn, this workshop will instruct attendees on how to craft and curate archives outside of traditional methods.
Join us in the BCaT Lab (Skinner 3115), or register to join via Zoom here!
DISCO Network: Content Creation & The End of Social Media
s social media still social? With the spread of content creation as a business, political strategy, and pastime across platforms, where is the space for sociality in social media? This panel examines the role of engagement farming, influencer culture, misinformation, disinformation, and AI in reshaping social media as a creator economy. In a digital landscape where we all serve as content creators and/or unwitting sources of valuable data, we explore whether social media is still a desirable avenue for forming and cultivating community, engaging in organizing strategies, or simply being social.
This event is open to the public, and we encourage all interested faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students to attend.
Advance registration is recommended. Register to attend on Zoom: https://myumi.ch/NrArW
ABJ Workshop: Principles of Game Design and Twine
This workshop, led by Dorothy Santos, will instruct participants on the fundamentals of game design and the open-source storytelling-game creation software, Twine.
Join us in the BCaT Lab (Skinner 3115), or register to join via Zoom here.
Art and The Archive
Join us at the BCaT Lab for an in-conversation about Black art in the diaspora, individual and collective identity, and radical archiving!
Art and the Archive
Whether you're an art enthusiast or a history buff, this event is perfect for you.
Join us at the BCaT Lab in Skinner 3115 for an in-conversation between artists and archivists Amber Robles-Gordon, keondra bills-freemyn and Maïa Walcott. The session will explore artistic practice as/and archival methods, the role of Black art in filling archival silences, and explore themes of personal vs. collective Black diasporic experience.
Lunch will be served in the lab from 1pm, with the panel from 2-3pm.
This is a hybrid event - to join us on Zoom, please register here.
We also have an Eventbrite registration link here.
Drop into the lab between 10-5pm any day between 1st - 4th December to participate in our collaborative mural project!
Panelists Include:
keondra bills freemyn, Maïa Walcott and Amber Robles-Gordon.
BCaT Eats
Join us at 1pm EST in Skinner 3115 for a special BCaT Eats event, directly before our ‘Art and the Archive’ panel. Nourish yourself as you prepare for the finals sprint, and we encourage you to join us for some painting before you make your plate!
BCaT Event: Collaborative Mural Project
Drop into the lab between 1st - 4th December at any time between 10-5pm to contribute to BCaT lab’s collaborative mural!
You’ll be painting alongside our artist-in-residence for the week as we create a full-wall mural commemorating the Black Homeplaces project.
We’ll have a variety of paints and canvases set up for painting individually or in groups, and we hope you will join us in making our lab a home!
Skinner 3115 (3rd Floor, first door on the right, to the right of the Stairs & Elevator.)
Reach out at bcat@umd.edu with any questions/comments/concerns.