Technologies have always mediated how we see and understand bodies. Moreover, technological systems have created body standards, and aided in the construction of gender and gendered relations. As technologies enter medical and healing spaces, they play a crucial role in how expertise is performed, hence contributing to shaping the accessibility, affordability, and quality of healthcare for individuals and communities.
Today, emerging technologies like robots, AI-assisted care, gig work, biomedicine etc, are not only changing how care is delivered, but also reshaping and reconfiguring labor relations of care. In the name of increasing access to high-tech solutions and reducing the labor burden for caregivers, new business ecosystems are altering and shifting social and economic relations. Who is accessing care, and who is benefiting from the ecosystem of healthcare technology design?
Care, Code & Control is a reading group focused on studying the social, cultural and political roles of emerging technologies in the context of health and wellbeing, with a special interest in labor relations, and the conception and valuation of bodies.
Aims
The reading group departs from the fields of Feminist Science and Technology Studies, and Media Studies, as a bridge to inform Design and creative practices.
We aim to build collective analysis and question dominant narratives in technology design. We recognize the power relations embedded in how technologies are produced, disseminated and consumed, and how technological systems often reinforce historical and systemic biases and injustices.
Through collective analysis, we also aim to generate collaborations across disciplines, geographies, and sectors of society, to both systematize the learning gained in conversation, and shape design interventions that depart from a critical study of technological systems.
Some questions we ask in the group include:
How do emerging technologies regulate and discipline bodies?
How are new configurations of labor furthering historical inequities in the performance of care work?
How do companies and institutions redefine health and well-being, and for what purposes?
How do robots re-signify care?
What are the consequences of relying on bio-indicators and data-driven ecosystems to define health and well-being?
What do we read in the group?: We understand texts expansively, comprising not only academic literature, but also short films, artworks or sound pieces. We prioritize works by women, BIPOC, indigenous, and other underrepresented identities in the construction of academic knowledge.
The material to be studied in the sessions is made available to participants via email.
When and where?: We meet every third Friday of the month, from 11:00 to 12:15 CST in Zoom.
Fall 2025 Dates: Aug 15, September 19, October 17, November 21
Who is organizing this space?: The reading group is a collaborative effort between two Latina scholars (Catalina Alzate and Angelica Martinez) who have been studying the impact of emerging technologies in wellbeing and motherhood through academic writing and creative interventions.
FAQ
What happens if my cat eats the text and I can't read it for the session?: We will be more worried about the cat than about your ability to participate. You are welcome to join and listen to the conversation, and/or contribute with your ideas, opinions and questions, even if you didn't get the chance to read the text.