Phil Howard, associate professor of communication at the University of Washington, will speak about “The Digital Origins of Democracy: Information Technology and Political Islam” on Friday, March 25, at 12:00 p.m. in Gordon Hall 303-304. The talk is open to the public and is cosponsored by the Department of Political Science; the Science, Technology, and Society Initiative; the Law, Societies and Global Justice Initiative; and the Center for Public Policy and Administration.
Howard’s talk will draw on fieldwork that he conducted in Egypt, Tajikistan and Tanzania to better understand how new information technologies are shaping democratization in countries with large Muslim populations. According to Howard, one in ten Internet users today is a Muslim living in a populous Muslim community, and many young people are developing their political identities—including a transnational Muslim identity—online.
Although technologies such as mobile phones and the World Wide Web are increasingly prevalent in Muslim countries, have they significantly advanced democratization there? Howard will address this important question through his research findings, and also talk about the potential of technology diffusion for producing rapid future democratization.
Phil Howard directs the World Information Access Project and the Project on Information Technology and Political Islam. His book, The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, was released by Oxford University Press in 2010. His 2006 book, New Media Campaigns and the Managed Citizen (Cambridge University Press), about the use of digital technologies to manipulate U.S. public opinion, was awarded the 2007 CITASA Best Book prize from the American Sociological Association and the 2008 Best Book prize from the International Communication Association.
Howard has been a Fellow at the Pew Internet and American Life Project in Washington, D.C., the Stanhope Centre for Communications Policy Research in London, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Palo Alto, CA. He earned a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and his doctorate from Northwestern University.
For additional or updated information about this event, please visit News and Events at www.umass.edu/polsci or www.masspolicy.org.