Human Contexts and Ethics

​​The Human Contexts and Ethics (HCE) program is an academic community and curriculum devoted to training the next generation of responsible data scientists–while rethinking the meaning of responsible data practice.

The HCE Program brings together faculty and students to teach core courses for the Data Science major and minor (Data 4AC and Data C104) and develop curriculum packages for technical classes at Berkeley and beyond. See our curriculum page to learn more about our work and to access our public materials.

Please see our Program page for more about our unique approach to teaching the Human Contexts and Ethics of Data and opportunities to work with us.

Questions? Contact us at hce@berkeley.edu

Recent News

HCE Spotlight: Janet Torres

Operating in the liminal space between data and nature, Janet Torres's work makes the binaries of data feel expansive and the expansiveness of the environment feels comprehensible. As a Ph.D. student in the Department of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning, they are currently completing a data-intensive quantitative analysis for their dissertation, working with a global dataset of spatial data across 26 years. The process of this work has involved a beautiful melange of HCE concepts and quantitatively intense time-series analysis

Data science benefits from diverse perspectives: an interview with Conan Minihan

We spoke to Conan Minihan, a formerly incarcerated individual and current UC Berkeley data science major, about his journey from prison to Berkeley, why he chose to study data science and what he hopes the field and he as a data scientist can do for society.

 

Maria Smith: Falling into the Arms of Sociology and Finding a Voice for Social Justice

Named a National Science Foundation Research Fellow, Smith will use her fellowship award to study the effects of digital technology on prison populations.  

 

 

 

Hani Gomez, Ph.D.: Computing Pedagogy at the Nexus of Technology and Social Justice

As an electrical engineering Ph.D. student at UC Berkeley, Hani Gomez specialized in microrobotics, often working in clean rooms designed to keep out dirt and dust. But over the course of her five years of study, she became increasingly interested in a part of academia that’s not so precise nor neat and tidy -- implicit bias, racism and their effects on the university and broader community.

 

 

 

Teacher Training: Towards Social Justice in the Data Science Classroom

The HCE Program held a teacher training on bringing human contexts and ethics into data science classrooms during the 2021 National Workshop on Data Science Education. Recording and Resources document available!

 

 

 

"Puzzling Out Our Roles and Places in the Datafied World"

An overview of the HCE program in conversation with Cathryn Carson, Margo Boenig-Liptsin, and Ari Edmundson, by Jon Bashor

 

 

 

A focus on data and justice in the new DATA 4AC course

DATA 4AC is an exciting and timely new course developed by the HCE program that realizes the spirit of Berkeley by bringing together an understanding of race in American experience, introduction to data science, and perspectives from the interpretive social sciences to support students in acting towards justice in the datafied world.