Monthly Archives: August 2019

The Verge: “Gamergate Comes to the Classroom” (Bo Ruberg quoted)

August 21, 2019

[Bo] Ruberg, a UC Irvine assistant professor in the department of informatics, was teaching “Games & Society.” It was November 2017, and the course was a required class taught to 260 students, the majority of which are typically male freshmen. Ruberg kept a strict no-screens policy in their classes — an easy enough ask to keep students from texting or scrolling through Instagram when they should be paying attention. But this was different: a dozen or so people holding up their phones, recording their lecture on gender without even the effort of hiding it.

Read the full story at The Verge.

Informatics Ph.D. Student Jazette Johnson Receives Community-Based Research Fellowship

August 19, 2019

The mission of the Newkirk Center for Science & Society, established nearly 20 years ago with an endowment by Martha and James Newkirk, is to “improve science’s response to community needs and to increase the effective uses of scientific information for the benefit of society.” In support of that mission, the center offers yearlong Community Based Research (CbRI) Fellowships to UCI graduate students from all disciplines. Recently, informatics Ph.D. student Jazette Johnson learned she had been named a CbRI Fellow for the 2019-2020 year, starting Sept. 15. As a fellow, Johnson will receive $5,000 and will work with a local community partner.

Continue reading →