FHS professor Susan Erikson awarded fellowship with Digital Democracies Institute

By Digital Democracies Institute at SFU

Reprinted with permission

The Mellon Foundation, together with the Digital Democracies Institute’s (DDI) Data Fluencies Project, is sponsoring semester-long fellowships for two Simon Fraser University faculty members. Fellows will spend one semester in residence at the DDI, engaging in research in their field as it relates to the research programming of the DDI’s Data Fluencies Project. This project investigates the impacts of mis- and disinformation on society by developing what we are calling Data Fluencies: methods that combine the interpretative traditions of the arts and humanities with critical work in the data sciences to express, imagine, and create innovative engagements with (and resistances to) our data-filled world. 

We are thrilled to announce that the Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 Data Fluencies Faculty Fellows will be, respectively: 

Dr. Susan Erikson, Faculty of Health Sciences on “Data Modeling as Power and Politik in Planetary Health: The Making of ‘Natural Asset’ Value.” Scholarly profile here | Twitter @slerikson. 

Dr. Victoria Thomas, School of Communication on “Hate as Collective Fiction Making: A Critical Technocultural Discourse Analysis of Libs of TikTok.” Scholarly profile here. 

Fellows will spend one semester in residence at the DDI, engaging in research in their field as it relates to the research programming of the DDI’s Data Fluencies Project. In return, Fellows will receive $40,000 CAD towards course release and research funds, and will have facilities at the DDI at their disposal. We look forward to working with and learning from Dr. Thomas and Dr. Erikson.