automating black joy -a disco co(lab)
with support from the Just Tech Fellowship, as part of the Social Science Research Council
est. 2025
Automating Black Joy is a project that points a critical lens toward the future of AI. We examine automation and AI through the lens of Black feminist inquiry and toward the goal of liberation and joy. A goal of the project is the development of a multi-generational research team from high school students through University faculty to consider the relationship between Black joy and automation via communication scholarship. By researching the implications of AI in education, politics, media, and the environment, our collaborators will collectively imagine possibilities for liberation. Together, we will build, write, and create using microgrants, skills workshops, and research teams over the next academic year. This collaboration will be led by Dr. Catherine Knight Steele, Director of the BCaT lab and an Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Maryland and a 2024-26 Just Tech Fellow.
Call For Proposals
Recognizing the growing ubiquity of automation, machine learning, algorithms, and artificial intelligence in our systems of education, politics, and society, Automating Black Joy takes a new approach to these conversations by insisting that Black youth, culture, and history can inform our future. This project conceives joy as a resistance strategy toward justice and liberation. Automating Black Joy:
Creates cohorts of students and faculty to work collaboratively on digital projects, social media research, educational tools, and public scholarship
Provides participants with training on research methods, including interviewing, focus groups, and digital ethnography, as well as digital tools such as sound production, digital mapping, and coding in Fall 2025
Helps teams produce and publish their work online in multiple formats (Spring 2026)
Provides individuals with mini-grants to help with their projects (up to $1500 in Summer 2026)
We are seeking collaborators, either as individuals or pre-conceived teams, from around the U.S. and the world who are interested in creating projects in Spring 2026 that explore questions related to automation, digital culture, social media use, and content creation by Black users. Some examples of projects/topics could be:
White paper report about the surveillance of black youth online
Academic research featuring interviews with content creators about breaking through algorithmic bias online
Online games that teach youth about algorithmic bias
Creative digital storytelling that traces the history and future of Black users in tech
A library of video shorts with public scholars exploring topics related to technoculture and Black studies
Interactive syllabi for all levels of interest
Poetry and creative/fantasy writing related to algorithms, AI, and Black studies
Afro-futurist music projects
Interested? fill out our interest form
bcat bookclub Spring 2025: Automating Black Joy
The Automating Black Joy BCaT Bookclub ran from March 12th, 2025 - May 7th, 2025. We engaged with speculative fiction, critical design, readings, and more in pointing a critical lens toward the future of AI. By reading about the implications of AI in education, politics, media, and the environment, we will begin to collectively imagine possibilities for liberation.