Though there is some debate about the origins of the word “religion,” I am partial to the sense derived from the Latin religare (“to bind” or “to fasten”). The image suggests that religion involves connection and commitment — connection to something outside of yourself and, through the act of connection, sincere commitment to certain practices and beliefs.
In January 2019, LSA announced the creation of a new Digital Studies Institute that would support the study of digital technologies from a humanities and social science perspective. The establishment of a formal academic institute followed the creation of the LSA Digital Studies Program in 2014 within the University’s Department of American Culture.
In the course of an undergraduate education here at the University of Michigan, there are just some things one is bound to encounter at some point or another. The Big House, the Shapiro Undergraduate Library, the block ‘M’; not to mention Zingerman’s, Hatcher Graduate Library and Angell Hall; these are the perennial names, spaces and places that make the U-experience what it is today.
If we look a little closer, however, there is another figure that tends to receive a considerable amount of attention here as well: His name is Karl Marx.
People say you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. However, when it comes to technology, the opposite holds true: You don’t know what you’ve got until you’re stuck with it.
Over the course of the pandemic, technology has creeped further into our lives, education being no exception. All of my classes this semester have been conducted online, as have my club meetings and social events. Practically every interaction I have with the University of Michigan happens through a webcam.
In his article for Geographical Review, geographer Blake Gumprecht posits the American college town as “a place apart, a unique type of urban community shaped by the sometimes conflicting forces of youth, intellect and idealism that have been a critical but underappreciated part of American life.”
What does it mean to live in a community?
On Tuesday of Welcome Week this year, I had dinner alone on my porch. The house I had moved into just a few days earlier was still uncomfortably hot, so I fled to the cool breeze and quiet murmur of the street. Settling into a chair, I watched the world go by in front of me as dusk faded into night.
After gaining independence from Russia in 1991, the government of Estonia set out to distinguish itself as a hub for technological innovation. Today, 99 percent of public services are available online to its 1.3 million citizens.
The Bird scooters that dropped in Ann Arbor this September and have continued to flock around campus are really akin to the common pigeon. They populate the sidewalks in droves and weave in and out of crowds of pedestrian students. They have their typical nesting areas, practically stacked on top of each other outside of the Modern Languages Building, Ross School of Business and other places that are just a bit too far from the other side of campus. City officials have tried to control them, but still they zip and zoom in every direction.
As a columnist writing about digital governance and data security, I sometimes wonder if my readers actually care about what happens to their online personal information. Amidst all of the recent headlines about cybercrime, data breaches and data exposure, it is hard to come to grips with what is actually at stake. These events seem far off and abstract, and the chance of it happening is so slim that it could never happen to you, right?