Purple Code – Intersectional feminist perspectives on digital societies

Systems of oppression are relevant in the development of digital technologies, in their application, and in the research about them. This podcast aims towards hearing the scientific findings, subjective views, and personal experiences of women and gender dissidents who engage with digital technologies. It is hosted by three female, migrant researchers who analyze the social implications of digital technologies at the Berlin based Weizenbaum-Institute for the Networked Society.

Each episode focuses on an invited woman or gender dissident, their work, experience, and views on relevant socio-political issues. The interviewees are for example researchers, artists, activists, and journalists. The podcast is a way to listen to voices that are often silenced, and to highlight various forms of oppression, for example sexist, racist, colonial, and other – in order to see technology and society differently.

The episode introduces the hosts of the podcast, who are Berlin based researchers from the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society. They introduce themselves and explain why they look at digitalized societies through an intersectional feminist perspective. They see the podcast as a way to listen to voices that are often silenced when talking about the digital transformation of societies, and to take seriously the personal views and experiences of their future guests in order to challenge the aura of objectivity of digital technologies that is dominant in public and academic discourse.

Sana Ahmad is a doctoral candidate at the Freie Universität Berlin and currently works as a research fellow with the research group ‘Work in Highly Automated, Digital-Hybrid Processes’ at the Weizenbaum Institute in Berlin, associated with the ‘Globalization, Work, and Production’ unit at the Berlin Social Science Center. Her interdisciplinary research project looks at the global content moderation value chains and labor processes in India. Sana is from India and has been living in Berlin for the last few years.
Personal Website | WZB Website | Twitter: @san_amd

Lena Ulbricht is a political scientist and leads a research group at the Weizenbaum-Institute for the Networked Society, and is member of the group Politics of Digitalization of the WZB Berlin Social Science Center. Her research focuses on the use of digital technologies for governance and the transformation of state power. She also analyzes technology regulation, platform governance, and resistance against digital technologies. She has a Chilean-German background and two daughters.
WZB Website | Weizenbaum Website | Twitter: @lena_ulbricht

Bianca Herlo is a design researcher and lecturer based in Berlin. She works in the field of social design at the Berlin University of the Arts and leads the research group “Inequality and Digital Sovereignty” at the Berlin Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society. Bianca teaches design and design theory at various universities and has been chair of the German Society for Design Theory and Research (DGTF) since 2021.
Weizenbaum Website | Design Research Lab | Twitter: @bherlo

Follow the podcast on Twitter: @purplecodepod