Shady Subjects

Everyday Contestation in Automated Systems

Workshop | April 24–26, 2025 | Ithaca, NY | Cornell University

THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2025

4:30am–6:30pm | Machines in Flames: Movie Screening and Discussion

Movie poster with the words Machines in Flames written over an atmospherically blurred photo of a fire in the dark

Screening of the 2023 documentary Machines in Flames (2023), followed by a discussion with co-director Andrew Culp and sociologist Janet Vertesi, moderated by Marc Aidinoff. Open to the public, free of charge, no ticket required.

Cornell Cinema, Willard Straight Hall, 136 Ho Plz, Ithaca, NY 14853

FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2025

8:30am–6:00pm | Workshop Sessions

Ain’t Misbehavin’: Staying with the Trouble in Automated Radiation Surgery Practice, Emma Dahlin, Stockholm University & Steve Woolgar, Linköping University

Jiggling Against the Machine: Moral Orders of Attention Simulation, Nick Seaver, Tufts University

Challenging & Sustaining Automation through Disability Expertise in Urban India: The Unique Disability ID Card, Kim Fernandes, University of Toronto

The Material Politics of Merit, Chuncheng Liu, Microsoft Research

Machine-readable Impunity: Police and the Deception of Mobility-Regulating Computers in New York City, Noah McClain, UC Berkeley

Pivots, Sareeta Amrute, New School

Of MYCIN Men: Mining the History of Early Medical Expert Systems, Jeffrey Yost, Charles Babbage Institute

Blurring the Boundary between Human and Machine: Cheating with AI in the Go Community, Jiuheng He, Cornell University

423 Morrill Hall, Department of Science & Technology Studies, Cornell University

SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 2025

8:30am–1:00pm | Workshop Sessions

"Harridans of Highways:"" Contesting an Automated Car Safety System, Thomas Zeller, University of Maryland

Contested Systems: Antidiscrimination Law and Labor Organizing in IBM’s Data Processing Division, Mikey McGovern, Yale Law School

Lying to the Machine, Mathias Klang, Fordham University

The Right Amount of Sex: Digital Work in the Grey Zone of Platform Governance, Elif Birced, Boston University

423 Morrill Hall, Department of Science & Technology Studies, Cornell University

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The workshop is made possible through support from a National Science Foundation CAREER award (1848286), the Department of Science & Technology Studies, and the Digital Due Process Clinic at Cornell University.