Purple Code

Intersectional feminist perspectives on digital societies

Systems of oppression are relevant in the development of digital technologies, in their application, and in the research about them. This podcast aims towards hearing the scientific findings, subjective views, and personal experiences of women and gender dissidents who engage with digital technologies. It is hosted by three female, migrant researchers who analyze the social implications of digital technologies at the Berlin based Weizenbaum-Institute for the Networked Society.

Each episode focuses on an invited woman or gender dissident, their work, experience, and views on relevant socio-political issues. The interviewees are for example researchers, artists, activists, and journalists. The podcast is a way to listen to voices that are often silenced, and to highlight various forms of oppression, for example sexist, racist, colonial, and other – in order to see technology and society differently.

Hosts

Sana Ahmad

Sana Ahmad is a doctoral candidate at the Freie Universität Berlin and currently works as a research fellow with the research group ‘Work in Highly Automated, Digital-Hybrid Processes’ at the Weizenbaum Institute in Berlin, associated with the ‘Globalization, Work, and Production’ unit at the Berlin Social Science Center. Her interdisciplinary research project looks at the global content moderation value chains and labor processes in India. Sana is from India and has been living in Berlin for the last few years.

Bianca Herlo

Bianca Herlo is a design researcher and lecturer based in Berlin. She works in the field of social design at the Berlin University of the Arts and leads the research group “Inequality and Digital Sovereignty” at the Berlin Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society. Bianca teaches design and design theory at various universities and has been chair of the German Society for Design Theory and Research (DGTF) since 2021.

Lena Ulbricht

Lena Ulbricht leads a research group at the Weizenbaum-Institute for the Networked Society, and is member of the group Politics of Digitalization of the WZB Berlin Social Science Center. Her research focuses on the use of digital technologies for governance and the transformation of state power. She also analyzes technology regulation, platform governance, and resistance against digital technologies. Lena Ulbricht graduated with a doctorate from the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, a degree in political science from Freie Universität Berlin and a degree in urban studies from Sciences Po Paris. She has a Chilean-German background and two daughters.

Weizenbaum Institute

The Weizenbaum Institute was constituted with the objective to better understand the dynamics, mechanisms and implications of digitalization. To this end, the Institute investigates the ethical, legal, economic and political aspects of digital change. This creates an empirical basis for responsible digitalization. On the basis of the research findings, action options are developed for government, the economy and civil society, in order to shape the digital transformation in a responsible interdisciplinary manner.

The Weizenbaum Institute is a joint project of five universities and two non university research institutions in Berlin and Brandenburg, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The following partners are involved in the consortium: Freie Universität Berlin (FU Berlin), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU Berlin), Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin), Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK), Universität Potsdam (UP), as well as the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems (FOKUS) and the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB). The Weizenbaum-Institut e.V. is responsible for the administrative coordination and legal representation of the institute.

Credits

We want to thank

Arne Bardelle for our jingle
Athena Grandis for layout and logo design
Florian Kirsten for web development and setup
Jackob Stratmann for mixing and postproduction