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GWAMIT Empowerment Conference: Digital Empowerment for the Real
World: Using Social Media, Creating Social Change (Keynote)
<p>Speaker: Latoya Peterson, Founder and Editor, Racialicious</p>
<p>Time: 6:30p–8:00p<br>
</p>
<h3 class="eventDate"><small>Thursday, March 15, 2012</small></h3>
<p> Location:
MIT Building-Room <a
href="http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg?mapterms=32-123&mapsearch=go">32-123</a>
</p>
Latoya Peterson discusses digital empowerment and the leveraging of
technology against structural barriers such as race, gender, and
class.
<p>A certified media junkie, Latoya Peterson provides a hip-hop
feminist and anti-racist view on culture with a special focus on
video games, film, television, and music. Skilled in interviewing
and creative non-fiction, Latoya Peterson spends her time editing
the award winning blog Racialicious.com – the intersection of race
and pop culture. She is a Contributing Editor for The Root.com and
Content Producer for the Online News Association. </p>
<p>Her work has been published in<em> Spin, Vibe, The American
Prospect, The Atlantic</em> Blog, <em>Bitch Magazine, Clutch
Magazine</em>, the <em>Women’s Review of Books</em>, <em>Slate</em>‘s
Double X, The Poynter Institute, The Root.com and the <em>Guardian</em>.
She was a contributor to Jezebel.com. Her essay, “The Not Rape
Epidemic” was published in the anthology <em>Yes Means Yes:
Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape</em>
(Seal Press, 2008). She also contributed “The Feminist Existential
Crisis (Dark Children Remix)” to the anthology <em>Feminism for
Real: Deconstructing the Academic Industrial Complex of Feminism
</em>(CCPA, 2011).</p>
<p>As a digital media consultant, Latoya Peterson has worked with
brands like NPR, Wikipedia, and Weber-Shandwick to provide
demographic analysis, ideas on improving user experience, and
specialized outreach. She is also a guest radio host for WEAA’s
Michael Eric Dyson Show and a contributor/substitute digital
producer for Al-Jazeera’s The Stream.</p>
<p>Her perspectives have been quoted in<em> Essence, The Boston
Globe, CNN, the Guardian, the Austin Chronicle</em>, and <em>Newsweek</em>
and she regularly speaks on topics of race, gender, and social
media at conferences like Women, Action and the Media and South by
Southwest Interactive.</p>
<p>She is currently working on projects related to race, pop
culture, and video games, and will speak for a fourth time at SXSW
Interactive 2011 on issues of technology and social justice. She
is a Poynter Institute Sensemaking Fellow, and one of the
inaugural Public Media Corps fellows.<br>
</p>
<p>Part of <br>
</p>
<p> GWAMIT Spring Empowerment Conference <br>
The Spring Empowerment Conference, started spring 2010, seeks to
provide resources for and promote discussion of issues relevant to
the life choices of graduate women. The planning committee
comprises women from across MIT departments and invites speakers
that are role models for graduate women and/or experts on how to
become those role models.
<br>
<br>
Events have included a lecture on implicit bias, a panel on
collaboration, a workshop on online personal branding, a panel of
"power couples," and a panel on modern feminism. </p>
<p>Digital Empowerment for the Real World-Using Social Media,
Creating Social Change:
<br>
Latoya Peterson discusses digital empowerment and the leveraging
of technology against structural barriers such as race, gender,
and class.
<br>
Networking reception with refreshments and hors d'oeuvres from
8:00-8:30pm.</p>
<div class="infourl">Web site: <a id="website"
href="http://empowerment.gwamit.org">empowerment.gwamit.org</a></div>
<p>Open to: the general public
</p>
<p>Cost: Free Admission </p>
<p>Tickets: No tickets required. RSVP at empowerment.gwamit.org </p>
<p> Sponsor(s): GSC Activities, School of Engineering, Dean's
Office, Office of the Dean for Graduate Education, Division of
Student Life, MIT School of Science</p>
<p> <span class="category">This event is categorized as: personal
development, diversity & inclusion</span></p>
<p> </p>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://events.mit.edu/event.html?id=14975337&date=2012/3/15">http://events.mit.edu/event.html?id=14975337&date=2012/3/15</a>
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