The Institute for Research on Digital Literacies
The Institute for Research on Digital Literacies

Events

Each year IRDL hosts an open house, a speaker series, cross-departmental collaborative events, and supportive writing groups for graduate students and faculty members. 

We are committed to providing space and support for research development and dissemination.

Sep
28
Mon
IRDL Speaker Series: Book Talk with Fenwick McKelvey
Sep 28 @ 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm
IRDL Speaker Series: Book Talk with Fenwick McKelvey @ ONLINE-ZOOM

For more than six decades, the public has been promised that computers will revolutionize politics, both nationally and internationally. In SimPolitics, Fenwick McKelvey traces the entwined history of politics and computers from the 1960s to the late 1980s. He shows how programmers, consultants, academics, political scientists, and peace activists all worked—sometimes in tandem, sometimes not—to build simulations to win campaigns, predict coups, forecast the future, and render politics as legible as a spreadsheet.

Drawing on novel archival and historical research, McKelvey recounts the history of efforts to simulate politics by building models of elections, voters, and international relations. Comparing attempts in the United States to simulate domestic electoral politics and international affairs, he reveals the unexamined connections and conflicts between the two projects. His book provides a helpful guide to taking stock of exaggerated claims that AI and technology will fix politics, while presenting the long history of such promised technological fixes.

Join us

Time and Date: September 28 @ 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm EST

Location: ONLINE

Register in advance here.

You will receive a confirmation email containing details about joining the meeting.

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