Off-Campus Extended Studies Courses

Although the Internet is a relatively new phenomenon, it influences our everyday interactions, perceptions of, and engagements with the world around us. We get our news, check our social media accounts, learn about others, and maintain relationships from the `safety' of our tablets, computers, and phones. The effects of the Internet on perceptions of self, of others, and on society extend beyond the 'pleasure' we receive through digital engagement. This course examines the potential perils and promise the Internet, and associated fields of study, have on women's lives. To better understand the a/effects of the Internet, we begin with a direct challenge to the concept of the digital divide, or the belief in a clear, tangible divide between 'offline' and 'online' worlds. We center the experiences of women, beginning with STEM and IT education (k-12, post grad), then move to the professional sphere to ascertain the ways education, access, and discourse interact and structure experiences, which allows one to complicate the construction of the Internet and various digital 'spaces' (e.g. Tinder/Bumble, Uber/DriveHer) This focus situates and explains the potential for hostility and engenders a socio-political-historical examination of digitally and non-digitally mediated fields.