Reimagining Black Youth-Led Technologies Symposium

Date: 

Friday, November 1, 2019, 8:15am to 6:00pm

Location: 

Wexner 434 AB, Harvard Kennedy School

The Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University Center for African Studies, Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, and the Harvard University Vice Provost's Office invites you to the Reimagining Black Youth-Led Technologies Symposium. 

Poster Image

The Reimagining Black Youth-Led Technologies Symposium will map and explore the global state of relevant research and practice, share and discuss insights and ideas in technology from the African continent and the African Diaspora, and encourage collaboration between participants across regions and continents. With a particular focus on perspectives and knowledge produced from the Global South, the symposium will address both challenges and opportunities Black youth face in digital spaces and offline. Including (but not limited to) issues such as inequitable access, ownership, administration, participation and representations, information asymmetry, risks to safety and privacy, skills and digital literacy, and spaces for participation, creation, civic engagement, and innovation. Black youth are engaging with and bettering their realities in innovative, creative, and disruptive ways that need to be harnessed as valuable knowledge, supported and amplified.

This highly participatory and interactive event will provide a space for participants to engage in a dialogue around research and policy frameworks; by bringing together academics, practitioners, activists, Black youth technologists, and the private sector from the African continent and the Diaspora. Along with promoting innovative, institutionalized approaches and initiatives that address global challenges, strengthen resilience and sustainable development. In the process, finding common ground, solidifying ties, and promoting cultural, educational, and leadership development.

The Symposium will engage contributors in a productive exchange of views and ideas on the implementation of the objectives of the International Decade for People of African Descent, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the sustainable development goals. In doing so, the event will help to establish a pipeline between the knowledge generated by Black youth harnessing technology, entrepreneurship, and innovation and knowledge institutions.

 

Opening Remarks:

David Lammy, Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom

Sushma Raman, Executive Director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Harvard University

Keynote:

Ruha Benjamin, Princeton University

Facilitators:

Elaine O. Nsoesie, Boston University

Desmond Patton, Columbia University; Harvard University

Sabelo Mhlambi, Harvard University

Julie Owono, Internet Sans Frontières

Speakers:

Kala Fleming, Diaspora AI

Niousha Roshani, Harvard University

Vitorino Trindade Wellington, Instituto Four

Mutale Nkonde, AI For the People; Harvard University

Rediet Adebe, Black in AI; Cornell University

Nyeleti Honwana, Global Black Youth; H.F. Guggenheim Foundation

Alfiaz Vaiya, European Parliament Anti-Racism & Diversity Intergroup

Leonard Cortana, New York University

Closing Remarks:

Omar Wasow, Princeton University

ORGANIZER: The Carr Center for Human Rights Policy

WEBSITE: https://carrcenter.hks.harvard.edu/event/re-imagining-black-youth-led-technologies-symposium?delta=0