Events
Richard B. Lippin Lecture in Ethics: Virginia Eubanks
The Rock Ethics Institute’s 2020 Richard B. Lippin Lecture in Ethics will feature Virginia Eubanks, author of the award-winning book “Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor.” The virtual lecture, which is free and open to the public, will take place Thursday, October 1, at 6:00pm.
Eubanks is an associate professor of political science at the University at Albany, SUNY, whose work on social justice and technology has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, BBC, and other outlets. Her lecture will discuss themes from “Automating Inequality”—the impacts of data mining, policy algorithms, and predictive risk models on poor and working-class people in America—and how they relate to the current pandemic.The cosponsors for this year’s Lippin Lecture are the Center for Humanities and Information, Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, McCourtney Institute for Democracy, and University Libraries. As part of its “Democracy Works” podcast with WPSU, the McCourtney Institute for Democracy recently released an interview with Eubanks previewing themes in her upcoming lecture.
There will be a discussion with Eubanks immediately following her lecture led by Sarah Rajtmajer and Pamela VanHaitsma, both faculty in the Rock Ethics Institute. You can submit potential questions for Professor Eubanks by emailing them to Betsy VanNoy (bmv111@psu.edu) by Monday, September 28.
How to Attend Lecture: The lecture will take place as a Zoom webinar. You will need to register at the following link before the event: https://psu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_nczAkLLaRZiIgu7zbsNwjA. After registering, you will receive a link for watching the lecture, which you will want to click on shortly before 6:00pm on Thursday, October 1.