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Abigail De Kosnik, associate professor in the Berkeley Center for New Media (BCNM) and in the department of theater, dance, and performance studies, teaches a class at UC Berkeley in Berkeley, Calif. on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2023. (Photo by Keegan Houser)

The Berkeley Center for New Media

Today’s students of technology need to be multidisciplinary thinkers and makers, and to deeply understand how issues of ethnicity, gender and sexuality inform technological development. The Berkeley Center for New Media (BCNM) is an interdisciplinary research center that studies and shapes media transition and emergence. BCNM brings together scholars, technologists, designers and artists for our students to develop a global understanding of new media and its impacts on society so that, as graduates, they can pioneer systems that serve the public good.

Did you know?

Innovative research at BCNM is moving the needle of awareness in digital media, public policy and social justice. Examples of this work include:

  • Our students, faculty and staff are advising the U.S. Senate on proposed legislation on digital media literacy and participating in a U.N. workshop on borders, race and digital tech.
  • The book, Image Objects, by Jacob Gaboury, assistant professor in the Department of Film & Media, offers a 70-year history of the digital age.
  • Psychology professor Celeste Kidd researches why people believe fake news and is also a powerful voice of the #MeToo movement in STEM. She was among the group of “Silence Breakers” named Time’s 2017 Person of the Year.
  • The Color of New Media working group published #identity: Hashtagging Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Nationality, an essay collection with contributions by POC/LGBTQ+ BCNM graduate students.
departments represented
among students, faculty & alumni
of students are women
of students are people of color
Guggenheim Fellows

BCNM is a place to engage in praxis, a space to experiment with the tall task of merging theory and practice to produce anew. The conversations and interactions that BCNM affords are unparalleled and set BCNM apart. From the students and faculty, to the staff and interlocutors, BCNM continues the tradition of taking New Media seriously without losing aspects of play and experimental risks. ❞

Vincent Perez
Ph.D.’25, Performance Studies

Arrow pointing leftHow can we save the internet?

How can we equip future tech workers with the knowledge and creative skills to transform industry for the common good? In BCNM’s core course Transforming Tech: Issues and Interventions in Silicon Valley, created by director Abigail De Kosnik, students learn about major tech ethics controversies and heavily criticized tech products, policies and effects, such as border policing tech, disinformation and fake news, and racial bias in algorithms

What does it mean to design with a critical lens?Arrow pointing left

Professor Eric Paulos teaches Critical Making, a hands-on studio design course in which students produce innovative new technologies and socially engaged art. Using design research as a lens, students envision and create computational experiences that explore themes such as community, privacy and healthcare.

bcnm.berkeley.edu
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