Anthropology as BIG DATA: Making the case for ethnography as a critical dimension in digital media and technology studies

Drawing on examples from her past and current research, Mary Gray talks about both responding to recent provocations about the role of "big data" in human communication research and technology studies and outline the value of anthropology, as a particular kind of "big data," that warrants more attention.
She will argue for attending to different kinds of data (from the statistically to the ethnographically significant), more collaborative approaches to how researchers arrive at what they (think they) know, and critical analysis of the cultural assumptions embedded in the data we collect.

Speaker: Mary Gray, Microsoft

Room 340