Conference: Innovative and Ethical Practices and Pedagogies in the Social Sciences: Geospatial Data, Validity and Fairness

Florida International University, Miami FL

Investigators

Abstract

This project aims to serve the national interest by providing a regional conference focused on ethical, valid, and fair use of data science in the social sciences. This interdisciplinary conference seeks to generate an in-depth discussion on the challenges of academia’s boundaries and corporate need and use for geospatial data science. This conference will bring together scholars in several areas including geographic information science, geography, education, linguistics, humanities, social sciences, and community groups. The conference will focus on how and what to teach undergraduate students in the area of data science to assure they can apply data science ethically, accurately, usefully, and fairly to challenges facing the region of South Florida and across the nation. An edited series of articles is expected to come from this conference, thus enabling attendees and non-attendees access to many of the important aspects covered in this conference. The main themes of the envisaged conference will focus on pedagogical strategies to teach the ethical aspects of 1) data collection, 2) data analytics and analysis, and 3) data visualization. Conference contributions will address pressing challenges in the context of constant and rapid technological advancements, such as balancing technological and technical learning with conceptual and ethical, valid, and fair knowledge production. From the applied perspective, the workshop will also review innovative pedagogies and learning activities that integrate ethical considerations of validity and fairness into the new ways of storing, manipulating, analyzing, representing, and sharing data. From a theoretical perspective, workshop participants will discuss (re)definitions of ethical issues and brainstorm on key generative terms of geospatial data validity and fairness. Conference contributions will also survey pedagogical strategies to teach how geospatial data collection, analysis and visualization might challenge biases, misinterpretations, and issues of power of government and corporations in geospatial technologies and data practices that lead to injustice. Finally, conference contributions will also explore potential alternatives to the common forms of data collection, analytics and analysis, and visualization, such as counter-data and participatory approaches to data collection, inductive visualization, and integration of reflexive and context-sensitive approaches in geospatial data science. Keynote presentations will include contributions from social scientists working on ethical geospatial data issues and from local community organizations. Some issues of focus are gentrification, evictions and displacement, sea-level rise, systemic racism, disinvestment in public services, resilience, and preservation of the culturally diverse history of minority communities in some of the oldest neighborhoods in Miami. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.