Welcome to a presentation of the ‘Geek Project’:
THE GEEK AS GATEKEEPER? Changing relations between gender, race and technology!
When
Friday, December 8, 13.00-15.00 Swedish time (12-2pm in the UK).
Where
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89541838762?pwd=NVl6dUpYc0taeGI4cnRlTGtNUGR1QT09
Program
Presentation of the project’s starting points, and how the project developed (app. 20 min)
Presentation of two sub-studies:
Discussions in small groups (app. 20 min)
Bring your questions to the ‘geek team’ (40 min)
About the project
The geek, often derided but also identified as stereotype and gatekeeper of technology in educational research, is on the rise today, increasingly linked to entrepreneurialism and success. Hence, this study has been timely. We break with previous studies in not contending with rejecting the geek, instead exploring the logics at play in gendering and racialising the geek and 'his' passion for technology through looking outside formal education.
The four-year project has consisted of three sub-studies, each analysing a context with both traditional geek representations and spaces where the geek is re-articulated and resisted. These are: Popular culture (film, TV and their viewing); Informal learnings spaces (makerspaces); Higher Education settings (student clubs/events). We have produced data using ethnographic methods including group/individual interviews and participant observation. Our ambition has been to deconstruct the geek, locating its conflicting discourses. In our presentation, we will shed light on the limits to its pluralization, its gatekeeper role in passionate relationships to technology and its manifestation in popular culture.
More info
https://www.umu.se/en/research/projects/the-geek-as-gatekeeper/
https://geekequity.org/
https://twitter.com/gatekeepergeek
/ Maria Berge, Andreas Ottemo, Heather Mendick, Eva Silfver