The Tech, Ethics & Society (TES) minor provides students with an interdisciplinary opportunity to examine ethical and social dimensions of emerging digital technologies. The TES minor is open to any undergraduate interested in how the most pressing societal concerns – from democracy and truth to national security and human rights – are now entangled with digital technologies. Students who minor in TES will become leaders in the socially responsible development, use, and governance of data and digital technologies.
Program Overview
Leveraging Georgetown’s unique strengths ethics and policy perspectives, the program includes exploration of:
- Tech policy and ethics
- Design justice
- Algorithmic bias
- ICT for Development
- Digital well-being
- Feminist game studies
- Misinformation
- AI governance
- Block chain policy
- Internet history
- Privacy and data protection
- Surveillance capitalism
- Platform regulation
Learning Goals
- Appreciation of the scope of ethical, normative, and social issues implicated by emerging data and digital technologies;
- An understanding of and facility with using normative concepts, frameworks, and methodologies for addressing those issues;
- Exposure to and exploration of a range of specific topics, from contemporary or historical perspectives, of technology’s transformative powers;
- Literacy in issues around the ethics and governance of issues in data sciences and digital technologies
Curriculum and Requirements
Note: Effective Fall 2023, all main campus courses have been renumbered using a new 4-digit numbering system.
— https://schedule.georgetown.edu/course-renumbering-crosswalk/
- Introduction to Tech, Ethics, and Society (PHIL-2100)
- 1 philosophy course in digital ethics (e.g. PHIL-2101 Data Ethics; PHIL-2102 Ethical Challenges of AI; PHIL-2103 Social Media & Democracy; PHIL-2201 Ethics of Privacy; or PHIL-2104 Ethics of Technology; PHIL-2090 Ethics of AI and Health)
- 1 course in technology law or policy (e.g. CCTP-6058 Global Cyber Policy; CCTP-5018 Digital Law and Policy; CCTP-6007 Free Expression and the Global Internet; STIA-3334 Emerging Tech Policy)
- 3 TES electives (totaling at least 9 credit hours) such as ANTH-2207 Love & Hate in the Digital Age; ANTH-2209 Anthropology of Social Media; CATH-325 Facebook and Jesus; COSC-010 Intro. to Information Technology; ENGL-4180 Death in the Digital Age; FMST-3398 Gaming and Justice; INAF-455 National Security & Social Media; JOUR-3367 Media Law in the Digital Age; JUPS-414 Justice & Technology; PHIL-2505 Public Policy and Technology; PHIL-172 What Do Machines Know; PSYC-4640 Children and Technology; SOCI-170 Social Networking; STIA-331 Disruptive Technology; STIA-409 Science, Technology and Soft Power; STIA-432 Technology and Intelligence.
Have questions about whether a course could count as a TES elective, or distribution requirement? Email Prof. Shannon Brick.
Meet the Director
Laura DeNardis, Ph.D., a globally-recognized technology and society scholar, is joining Georgetown University’s faculty as the inaugural endowed Chair in Technology, Ethics, and Society in Georgetown University’s College of Arts & Sciences.
Get to know Dr. DeNardis