Ethics

In this CARE workshop we will focus on a single ethic topic: Social inequalities in academia. Each day will offer a different activity on the topic. The activities are planned in order of increasing interactivity and implication from the audience.

Day 1 - Invited Speaker

Ahrabhi Kathirgamalingam (GESIS)

Dr. Ahrabhi Kathirgamalingam (she/ her) is a postdoctoral research associate GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences in the department Computational Social Science. Her research examines how social bias, particularly around racism, is produced, reproduced, and detected in language, media, and computational systems, including large language models. ahrkat.github.io

Title: Whose Knowledge Counts? Access, Recognition, and Solidarity in Academic Communities

Abstract: Who decides what counts as good research, interesting knowledge, or a legitimate way of thinking? This talk explores how social bias shapes academic communities– not only through biased data and AI systems, but through the mechanics of access, recognition and (lack of) solidarity that determine who gets to belong and whose knowledge counts. Drawing on research and insights from computational social science and communication science, the talk looks at social bias as a question of power and visibility as much as measurement, and opens an interactive discussion on how these dynamics play out across different fields.

Day 2 - Forum Theater

Title: No spoilers!

Forum theater is an improvisational theater practice whose goal is to explore solutions to social injustices. See also Theater of the oppressed by Augusto Boal. The audience will watch a short scene ennacted by the theater company Forumtheater-Ruhr. The audience will then be invited to discuss the central conflict of the scene and suggest modifications that could resolve it.

Day 3 - Small group discussions

We separate into small groups around small well defined problems regarding social inequalities in academia. The goal is to set up a concrete road map to tackle these problems. If you are a participant and want to suggest a topic for this activity, feel free to write us an email.