STS 4040 - [Digital Due Process Clinic]

(SBA-AS, SCD-AS, SSC-AS) (CU-CEL)

Spring. Not offered: 2023-2024. Next offered: 2024-2025. 4 credits. Letter grades only.

Permission of instructor and application required.

M. Ziewitz.

Automated scoring systems play an increasingly important role in ordering our lives. Whether we want to obtain a loan, rent an apartment, be found in search results, qualify for government assistance, or make the shortlist for a job – all of these decisions involve a range of computational techniques, including large-scale data analytics and predictive algorithms. So what to do when things go wrong and individuals feel mistreated by these systems? The Due Process Clinic is a semester-long, 4-credit course that focuses on the capacities of ordinary people to cope with, understand, and challenge automated scoring systems. It involves a mixture of hands-on fieldwork and seminar discussions, ranging from social and technical analyses of scoring practices to the ethical challenges of representing data subjects.