open invitation

This is an open invitation to all writers, learners, teachers, scholars, gamers, designers, inventors, artists, activists, archivists and advocates and other community members engaging in research, pedagogy and practices in the area of feminism, technology, science, arts and media to collaborate with FemTechNet on existing and new projects.

Who We Are

FemTechNet is an always-shifting distributed network of feminist scholars, educators, artists and organizers working together on projects in feminist technological research, experimentation and innovation. We create resources and pedagogical tools for our open source “course” in Feminism and Technology studies (the DOCC project). In addition, our network fosters other art, activist, research and pedagogy projects in the area of feminism and technology.

What We Do

Our DOCC project–the Distributed Open Collaborative Course–launched in 2013, creates a new model for online learning.  To date, we have offered the course at numerous higher education institutions, and it is also available as open sourced curriculum online, for use in non-institutional venues.

The DOCC course is organized as a network of participants who interact in diverse contexts from colleges and universities, to community centers, to open, online learning. This model explicitly departs from the typical “MOOC” approach, organized around the delivery of information from an “expert” faculty to the uninformed masses. The organization of a DOCC emphasizes learning collaboratively in a digital age by enabling the active participation of all kinds of learners–as teachers, as students, as media-makers, as activists, as trainers, as members of various publics and/or social groups. Both faculty and students share ideas, resources, and assignments as a feminist network: the faculty as they develop curricula, and deliver the course in real time; and the students as they work collaboratively with faculty and with each other at their institutions and beyond.

FemTechNet’s DOCC course, on themes related to Feminism and Technology, is made up of shared materials and connected learning activities. The DOCC also enables the extension of classroom experiences beyond the walls, physical or virtual, of a single institution. DOCC participants can choose among our video dialogues and other resources, designing the course to meet their educational needs and agendas, and may coordinate collaborations with other DOCC nodes offered in another locale or context.   Participants may engage on-site or on-line at an institution-offered course, or at-large as self-directed learners. For the DOCC project, network members have filmed original video of feminist scholars and artists in dialogue on key issues in technology, art, science, media and feminism. We continue to expand this curriculum, and seek to expand our video and other DOCC materials to reflect foundational, current and emerging themes, debates, and forms within the overlapping STEAM/M (science, technology, engineering, arts, math & media) fields. 

How to Participate

    • Host a DOCC class
      As a faculty member, you can work to offer the DOCC course at your educational institution, artist-run center or community-run organization.
    • Join a DOCC class
      You can participate in FemTechNet by joining a DOCC class (at a participating institution, as a self-directed learner, or as a drop-in learner who tunes in for a particular discussion or topic.).
    • Participate in the network
        • Volunteer: Join others on committees to produce curriculum, support materials, collaborative research on communication and other technologies, etc.
        • Attend: Conferences and Workshops. In summer of 2017, we had a gathering at the Allied Media Conference in Detroit, Michigan. There are other convenings in the works.
        • Activate & Advocate: Attend or host an online town hall meeting, or a meeting with an advocacy group on a FTN video channel.
        • Host: Hold a teach-in to share technical skills, host an online gallery to share your art practice or host a reading group or teach-in.
        • Stream: your conference or workshop to a FTN video channel.
        • Imagine: Create up a new way to engage with FemTechNet; new projects can be initiated by any member of FemTechNet.
        • Contact FemTechNet: FemTechNetInquiries@gmail.com

2 Comments

  1. june owens
    May 4, 2015 @ 4:29 pm

    let’s preserve this film.
    Town Bloody Hall The infamous 1971 women’s liberation debate at the Town Hall theater in NYC moderated by Norman Mailer with panelists Germaine Greer, Jill Johnston, Diana Trilling and Jacqueline Ceballos from the National Organization for Women. Audience participants include Betty Friedan, Elizabeth Hartwick, Anatole Broyard and Susan Sontag.
    (let’s see how much it would cost- we can ask women moving millions, women ceo’s, women and scholars- grants- something) and get this preserved. I can do a “case study” for my dissertation about it…we just have to know how much it cost- and then ask for the money. anyone want to be with me on this? it’s in NEED of being preserved or it may be LOST….june (juneowenscreative@gmail.com) 2149918957

  2. Alicia Peaker
    June 12, 2015 @ 4:44 pm

    Please add me to the listserv. Thank you!