Events

The BCaT Lab hosts several events each semester, alongside open lab hours between 10am - 3pm from Tuesday to Thursday.

If you’re interested in being active with BCaT, explore what events we’re hosting below or subscribe to our Google Calendar to be the first to know what we’re planning each month. If you’ve attended one of our events in the past, please feel free to leave feedback through our Event Feedback form!

TRYING TO JOIN an event?

For all the events that use Zoom, we use the same link. To join an event, click below.

our programming

Several of our events are consistent from semester-to-semester: 

DISCO CO(LAB)s- year-long, inter-institutional collaborative research projects

BCaT Learns- weekly lunchtime program with varying focus areas that includes guided discussions, colloquiums, book clubs, tools workshops and guest speaker presentations. 

BCaT Writes- provides a weekly supportive space for writing and body-doubling, as well as drop-in support for undergraduate students seeking writing support.

BCaT Applies- a monthly workshop with varying topics aimed at supporting your career development, from CV and job market material reviews, to discussions of alt-academic career paths, to workshopping conference materials! 

BCaT Eats- our monthly event where we prioritise rest and community-building - we invite you to join us for dinner, movies, and games. 

Other programming may include colloquium and/or panel talks, and author visits at BCaT Book Club meetings. 

BCaT Calendar

Want to learn more about an event? Click the calendar to see details about each event for that day!

Apr
1

SAFIYA U. NOBLE: PLENARY & FIRESIDE CHAT WITH PATRICIA HILL COLLINS & CATHERINE KNIGHT STEELE

Dr. Safiya U. Noble is a Professor at UCLA where she serves the Director of the Center on Race & Digital Justice and Co-Director of the Minderoo Initiative on Tech & Power. She is the bestselling author of Algorithms of Oppression. This talk will be moderated by Catherine Knight Steele, Associate Professor of Communication and Director of the Black Communication & Technology Lab.

Register at go.umd.edu/noble.

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Apr
3

Open Lab Hours: Writing Lab

Interested in coming to the lab to discuss research or find ways to get involved? Visit us in Skinner 3115 from 10am-3pm! We will also be hosting writing support and undergraduate drop-ins during this time.

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Apr
10

Open Lab Hours: Writing Lab

Interested in coming to the lab to discuss research or find ways to get involved? Visit us in Skinner 3115 from 10am-3pm! We will also be hosting writing support and undergraduate drop-ins during this time.

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Apr
17

Open Lab Hours: Writing Lab

Interested in coming to the lab to discuss research or find ways to get involved? Visit us in Skinner 3115 from 10am-3pm! We will also be hosting writing support and undergraduate drop-ins during this time.

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Apr
24

Open Lab Hours: Writing Lab

Interested in coming to the lab to discuss research or find ways to get involved? Visit us in Skinner 3115 from 10am-3pm! We will also be hosting writing support and undergraduate drop-ins during this time.

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May
1

Open Lab Hours: Writing Lab

Interested in coming to the lab to discuss research or find ways to get involved? Visit us in Skinner 3115 from 10am-3pm! We will also be hosting writing support and undergraduate drop-ins during this time.

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May
8

Open Lab Hours: Writing Lab

Interested in coming to the lab to discuss research or find ways to get involved? Visit us in Skinner 3115 from 10am-3pm! We will also be hosting writing support and undergraduate drop-ins during this time.

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Mar
27

Open Lab Hours: Writing Lab

Interested in coming to the lab to discuss research or find ways to get involved? Visit us in Skinner 3115 from 10am-3pm! We will also be hosting writing support and undergraduate drop-ins during this time.

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Mar
26

BCaT Applies: Zeeschuimer

This workshop offers a user-friendly data scraping method for the researcher who—like me—is not tech-savvy. The tool we will discuss is Zeeschuimer, which can capture data from TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and more by "looking over your shoulder" as you scroll through them. We will also explore the 4CAT interface, which provides a toolkit to process and analyze your raw data. Join us at Skinner 3115 or on Zoom, register here!

Pre-workshop installation instructions

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Mar
26

BCaT Book Club - Automating Black Joy

This week’s topic is on Black Feminist Speculation! This week, we are reading/listening/watching:

The Trojan Girl - Epiphany 2.0 (N.K. Jemisin)

Escape Pod 338: The Trojan Girl

The Trojan Girl, N.K. Jemisin: FULL Audiobook & Soundscape 

M Archive (Alexis Pauline Gumbs)

Parable of the Sower (Octavia Butler)

Join us at Skinner 3115 or on Zoom for BCaT Bookclub. To access the materials for this week, visit our Automating Black Joy page.

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Mar
13

Open Lab Hours: Writing Lab

Interested in coming to the lab to discuss research or find ways to get involved? Visit us in Skinner 3115 from 10am-3pm! We will also be hosting writing support and undergraduate drop-ins during this time.

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Mar
10

Black Soundscapes: A DISCO Co(Lab) Workshop

Allie Martin is an artist and ethnomusicologist from Prince George’s County, Maryland, whose work explores the intersections of race, sound, and power. Her book, Intersectional Listening: Gentrification and Black Sonic Life in Washington, DC, examines the relationships between race, sound, and gentrification in the nation’s capital.

From generative AI to various phases of appropriation, Black soundscapes are under constant surveillance and manipulation. In this workshop, Dr. Martin demonstrates strategies for considering the ethics of soundscape recording and composition in Black digital and artistic projects. Drawing from her residency with the Library of Congress Connecting Communities Digital Initiative (CCDI), she offers insights on sampling collections with critical intention across mediums, including installations, films, and digital projects. Ultimately, Dr. Martin invites a conversation about slowing the datafication of Black life, advocating for a more thoughtful approach that carefully considers the consequences and possibilities of handling Black sound.

Join us at Skinner 3115 or on Zoom. Register Now!

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Feb
27

Open Lab Hours: Writing Lab

Interested in coming to the lab to discuss research or find ways to get involved? Visit us in Skinner 3115 from 10am-3pm! We will also be hosting writing support and undergraduate drop-ins during this time.

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Feb
26

BCaT Eats: Technoskepticism Launch

Join us for the launch of the book Technoskepticism! From Munchausen by Tiktok, to wellness apps, to online communities, to AI, the DISCO Network explores the possibilities that technoskepticism can create. Technoskepticism explores possibility and refusal in new technologies, highlighting how people of color and disabled individuals have long navigated between acceptance and rejection. Technoskepticism shares their stories, revealing the opportunities skepticism can create.

To attend the event virtually, register here or join us in Skinner 3115!

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Feb
26

Information Session - Automating Black Joy

Join us for an information session to learn about our new inter-institutional research project which examines automation and AI through the lens of Black feminist inquiry.

Want to get involved? Join us in Skinner 3115 or on Zoom from 12 pm - 1 pm for our Automating Black Joy information session!

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Feb
26

BCaT Workshop: Archives and the Black Tradition

Archives and the Black Tradition explores the significance of personal and digital archives in re/defining historical legacies, promoting narrative control and agency, and expanding conventional notions of memory, place, and truth.

keondra bills freemyn is a writer and archivist in the Black tradition whose work and research centers contemporary cultural production. She is Co-Executive Director of Black Lunch Table, a radical digital archiving project focused on Black visual artists and is founder of Black Women Writers Project, a digital archival initiative highlighting the contributions of Black women and gender-expansive writers to the literary canon. She is an alumna of Columbia University (MPA), Fordham University (BS), and University of Maryland (MLIS).

To attend the event virtually, register here or join us in Skinner 3115!

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Feb
20

Open Lab Hours: Writing Lab

Interested in coming to the lab to discuss research or find ways to get involved? Visit us in Skinner 3115 from 10am-3pm! We will also be hosting writing support and undergraduate drop-ins during this time.

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Feb
19

BCaT Applies: AoIR Application Clinic

The BCaT Lab is hosting an Associate of Internet Researchers (AoIR) clinic! We are here to offer guidance on your submission materials. The theme for 2025 explores “ruptures,” encompassing alternative internet histories and theoretical perspectives often overshadowed by dominant Western ideation and big tech. Take advantage of this clinic ahead of the AoIR’s March 1st deadline!

Join us on Zoom or in Skinner 3115!

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Feb
19

BCaT Workshop: Oral Histories

In this workshop our speakers reflect on their own practices of collecting and narrativising Oral Histories, how method informs their research, and give practical guidance towards the recovery and ethical engagement of Black counter-narratives.

Paula Akpan’s historical practice and journalism interrogate themes of Blackness, queerness, community-building and our relationship with technology. Her first book, WHEN WE RULED: THE RISE AND FALL OF TWELVE AFRICAN QUEENS AND WARRIORS will be published in May 2025.

Dr. Jade Bentil’s work maps genealogies of Black women's refusal and resistance. Her forthcoming first book, REBEL CITIZEN, is an oral history project focusing on the intimate recollections and experiences of Black women of African and Caribbean descent who migrated to Britain following the Second World War.

To attend the event virtually, register here or join us in Skinner 3115!

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Feb
13

Open Lab Hours: Writing Lab

Interested in coming to the lab to discuss research or find ways to get involved? Visit us in Skinner 3115 from 10am-3pm! We will also be hosting writing support and undergraduate drop-ins during this time.

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Feb
6

Open Lab Hours: Writing Lab

Interested in coming to the lab to discuss research or find ways to get involved? Visit us in Skinner 3115 from 10am-3pm! We will also be hosting writing support and undergraduate drop-ins during this time.

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