DISCO (Digital Inquiry, Speculation, Collaboration, and Optimism) Network

The DISCO (Digital Inquiry, Speculation, Collaboration, and Optimism) Network is a consortium of investigators working on the frontiers of digital technology, critique, making, and optimism. The DISCO Network is supported by funding from the Mellon Foundation and housed within the Digital Studies Institute at the University of Michigan. The DISCO Network comprises six labs across five universities: the Michigan Hub (PI: Lisa Nakamura, University of Michigan), HAT Lab (PI: Rayvon Fouché; Northwestern University), DAF Lab (PI: M. Remi Yergeau, University of Michigan), Future Histories Studio (PI: Stephanie Dinkins, Stony Brook University), PREACH Lab (André Brock, Georgia Institute of Technology), and BCaT Lab(Catherine Knight Steele, University of Maryland-College Park). Each laboratory stands alone and as a network node to write, discuss, and think about the past, present, and future of the intersection between digital technology, race, disability, gender, sexuality, and liberation. The DISCO Network funded eight postdoctoral fellows and artists-in-residence: Huan He (University of Michigan), Jeff Nagy (University of Michigan), David Adelman (University of Michigan), Lida Zeitlin-Wu (University of Michigan), Aaron Dial (Purdue University), Rianna Walcott (University of Maryland-College Park), Kevin Winstead (Georgia Institute of Technology), Brandy Pettijohn (Georgia Institute of Technology), and Coleman Collins (Stony Brook University). From 2021-2024, DISCO Network convened a national network of faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, research affiliates, advisory board, and staff working on topics of racial inequality, histories of exclusion, disability justice and techno-ableism, and digital racial politics within the academy, the technology industry, and beyond. The DISCO Network provided mentoring and networking opportunities for the next generation of BIPOC and disabled scholars and artists, developed new interdisciplinary undergraduate courses about the intersection of identity and technology, published cutting-edge, open-access research on topics of digital social inequalities, and hosted public programming and engaged in outreach to build the field of race, gender, disability, and technology studies. This Deep Blue collection includes syllabi from courses taught by DISCO Network principal investigators and postdoctoral fellows, event materials from previous DISCO Network events (e.g., fliers, recordings), and links to published work by DISCO Network scholars.