You’re invited to a conversation with Ryan Calo (Law, UW Seattle) about the frictions between law and technology in honor of the launch of his new book, Law & Technology: A Methodical Approach (Oxford University Press), on Monday, December 8, 2025 at 6 PM at Ada’s Technical Books & Café (425 15th Ave E, Seattle, WA 98112).
Why is technology hard to regulate? What can be done about this? Join us for a cool walk-through of a framework to understand and address legal challenges posed by technologies at Seattle’s geekiest bookstore with UW’s leading scholar of technology and law.
No registration required.
Please feel free to share widely with colleagues, students, and friends who might be interested.
On October 23, 2025, join us for an evening book salon featuring UW scholars Ryan Calo (Law), Leah Ceccarelli (Communication), and Katharina Reinecke (Computer Science) in conversation about tech policy, culture, and controversies in technoscience.
Book Salon | Culture Shock, Controversy, and Policy: Approaches to Technology and Society
When
Thursday, October 23, 2025 Doors open at 5:30 PM, Salon begins at 6:00 PM
Where
Toni C. Rembe Appellate Courtroom, Room 133 UW School of Law William H. Gates Hall 4293 Memorial Way NE Seattle, WA 98195
Moderated by Monika Sengul-Jones, this event will explore timely questions at the intersection of technology and society: How does culture shape the technologies we use? What do scientific controversies reveal about our relationship to technoscience? How is expertise encoded into technical systems, and with what consequences? What are the implications for law and policy?
The discussion will revolve around the themes of three new books:
Part reading, part conversation, this Book Salon will be an opportunity to hear from three UW authors from different disciplines about their research on emerging technologies.
Program
5:30 | Doors open. Check in at the Welcome Desk at the east entrance to William Gates Hall
6:00 – 7:15 | Salon Conversation
7:15 – 7:30 | Candy Reception
Recording
This salon will not be available in a hybrid format, however, a recording or transcript may be available upon request and with permission from the speakers. Email mmjones@uw.edu to learn more.
Travel and Parking
The School of Law is accessible by transit, car, bicycle, and foot.
By public transit, the School of Law is accessible to many busses and less than 0.2 miles from the U District station for the Light Rail. The entrance to the event is on the east side of the building, on Memorial Way.
By car, exit 1-5 to NE 45th St and go east. Turn right onto Memorial Way Northeast, then turn right to enter Lot N01, adjacent to the Burke Museum, which has Pay By Phone parking.
Bicycle racks are available on the north end of the building.
Accessibility
All areas of this space are wheelchair accessible. There are ADA parking spots in Lot N01 Hall. The event, reception, and bathrooms are conveniently located on the main floor. If you need accommodations or have accessibility questions prior to the event, please contact mmjones@uw.edu; during the event, please ask the Society + Technology at UW and Tech Policy Lab staff or volunteers for assistance.
Masks
We are a mask-friendly event. Even though masks are no longer required in many places, attendees may want to continue to wear a mask for added protection against COVID-19, especially those who are immunocompromised, living with someone immunocompromised, or who may just feel safer wearing a mask. Everyone should assess their own personal risk when making this decision. Masks will be available at the Welcome Table at the east entrance to the School of Law. Please do not attend if you are feeling unwell.
About Salons
Salons are one of Society + Technology at UW’s community programs, hosted conversations to elevate the cross-campus and cross-disciplinary perspectives on emerging technologies. Each Salon is a one-hour and fifteen-minute conversation between three to five affiliates from the S+T network, with a moderator. The purpose is to recognize and honor live, arranged encounters as a meeting of the minds, to give greater visibility to the S+T network, and to cultivate intellectual conditions for deeper collaborations.
More about Society + Technology at UW
Society + Technology at UW is a cross-campus, cross-disciplinary initiative and community at the University of Washington devoted to fostering interdisciplinary conversations about emerging technologies and their societal impact. The initiative connects researchers, students, and professionals through events, discussions, and collaborative initiatives. With a growing network of affiliates, S+T at UW raises the ethical, cultural, and policy implications of technological advancements.
Speakers
Ryan Calo is the Lane Powell and D. Wayne Gittinger Professor at the University of Washington School of Law. He is a founding co-director of the UW Tech Policy Lab and a co-founder of the UW Center for an Informed Public. Professor Calo holds a joint appointment at the Information School and an adjunct appointment at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering.
Leah Ceccarelli is Professor of Communication at the University of Washington. She is a rhetorical critic and theorist whose research focuses on the rhetoric of science. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in American Public Address, Rhetorical Criticism, and the Rhetoric of Science. Ceccarelli also directs the UW Science, Technology, and Society Studies Graduate Certificate Program.
Katharina Reinecke is Professor and Associate Director of Research and Communication in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, where she directs the Wildlab and the Center for Globally Beneficial AI — an interdisciplinary, cross-campus initiative that aims to imagine and define the next generation of personalized AI technologies for people around the world.
About the Salon Series
A S+T at UW Community Program, salons are a conversation series held in-person or online, designed to elevate the S+T’s cross-campus and cross-disciplinary perspectives on technologies. Each Salon is a one-hour and fifteen-minute conversation between three to five affiliates from the S+T network, with a moderator. The purpose is to recognize and honor live, arranged encounters as a meeting of the minds, to give greater visibility to the S+T network, and to cultivate intellectual conditions for deeper collaborations.
Join us for a conversation with Olivia Banner (CREATE and Disability Studies Program, UW Seattle) and Nassim Parvin (Information School, UW Seattle) about media technologies, insurgencies, and alternative visions of care, held on the publication day of Banner’s new book, Crip Screens: Countering Psychiatric Media Technologies (Duke University Press).
When
Tuesday, October 21, 2025, from 1:00 to 2:15 PM
Where
Simpson Center for the Humanities, CMU 202 4109 E Stevens Way NE, Seattle, WA 98195
Drawing on previously ignored and effaced cultural texts from the 1960s and 1970s, Crip Screens foregrounds the insurgent practices of and media by women and communities of color that contested psychiatric discourses and their mediated and technological applications. Banner and Parvin, co-editor of the new book Technocreep and the Politics of Things Unseen, will discuss how resistances and alternatives to technologies of racialized, gendered, and colonial oppression materialize.
Banner will also discuss the tensions of publishing her book in 2025.
Speakers
Olivia Banner is Director of Strategy and Operations at the Center for Research and Education on Accessible Technology and Experiences (CREATE) at UW. Banner is also the author of Communicative Biocapitalism: The Voice of the Patient in Digital Health and the Health Humanities and co-editor of Teaching Health Humanities. Prior to joining UW, Banner was Associate Professor of Critical Media Studies at The University of Texas at Dallas. Her scholarship has appeared in Catalyst, Disability Studies Quarterly, Literature and Medicine, Signs, and edited collections.
Nassim Parvin is a Professor at the UW Information School, where she serves as the Associate Dean for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access & Sovereignty (IDEAS). She co-edited Technocreep and the Politics of Unseen, which was published by Duke University Press in 2025. Parvin’s interdisciplinary research integrates theoretically-driven humanistic scholarship and design-based inquiry. Her scholarship is published across disciplinary venues in design, Human-Computer Interaction, Science and Technology Studies, and Philosophy.
About the Salon Series
A S+T at UW Community Program, salons are a conversation series held in-person or online, designed to elevate the S+T’s cross-campus and cross-disciplinary perspectives on technologies. Each Salon is a one-hour and fifteen-minute conversation between three to five affiliates from the S+T network, with a moderator. The purpose is to recognize and honor live, arranged encounters as a meeting of the minds, to give greater visibility to the S+T network, and to cultivate intellectual conditions for deeper collaborations.
Hosted by Society + Technology at UW, co-sponsored by CREATE, The Simpson Center, and the UW Tech Policy Lab
Crossposting the UW Communication’s Center for Journalism, Media, and Democracy (CJMD)’s article about “Technology for the People,” a Society + Technology at UW (S+T) salon co-hosted with CJMD.
From left to right: Salon co-host and co-sponsor Monika Sengul-Jones (S+T, Tech Policy Lab), Esther Jang (Computer Science, UW Seattle), Divya C. McMillin (Global Media Studies, UW Tacoma), co-host and co-sponsor Adrienne Russell (Communication, CJMD), Carmen Gonzalez (Communication, UW Seattle), and Dharma Dailey (Computing & Software Systems, UW Bothell).
On April 12, 2025, Society + Technology at UW co-hosted ‘Technology for the People,’ a salon that brought together prominent voices from all three UW campuses in the technology, media, and communication fields to discuss efforts to promote digital equity and information access in the Puget Sound region.
The event featured speakers across multiple disciplines: Dharma Dailey (Computing & Software Systems, UW Bothell), Carmen Gonzalez (Communication, UW Seattle), Esther Jang (Computer Science, UW Seattle), and Divya C. McMillin (Global Media Studies, UW Tacoma). The salon was co-hosted and co-sponsored with CJMD and the Tech Policy Lab.
Salon co-hosts Monika Sengul-Jones (Director of Strategy & Operations, S+T) and Adrienne Russell (co-director, CJMD) emphasized the importance of the salons as creating a space for cross-disciplinary connection.
“This was a fantastic conversation that really showcased the deeply important and engaged work on how digital technologies are developed and used [that] UW researchers are doing across campuses and disciplines,” Russell said.
“The impulse behind this, the reason to host it, is because the biggest challenges of our time–such as how to grapple with inequalities and the role of technologies and media ownership–are best addressed through cross-disciplinary conversations,” Sengul-Jones added.
Salons are part of Society + Technology at UW’s community programming, which aims to explore a variety of issues and perspectives on emerging technologies. Salons are presented as intellectual discussions to cultivate meaningful collaborations among S+T affiliates and community members.
“This salon was proof of concept for this format, and is one of several Society + Technology at UW community programs that I’m leading to foster conversation,” said Sengul-Jones. “What made this salon a success was both cross-disciplinarity and intergenerational form. Everyone had slightly different disciplinary homes and methods for asking similar questions.”
Part of that success was the audience’s enthusiastic participation in the discussion. The salon hosted a diverse audience of over 100 registrants–from graduate students and faculty, to government workers, and more.
“Many in the audience were curious, concerned citizens coming to gain insight from our university,” Sengul-Jones said. “I see the salon as a service to our public.” It was an event, as the salon’s title suggests, “for the people.”
“It’s easy to forget in this current moment that technologies are made by people and they could be made and used in ways that support rather than undermine our connections to one another,” Russell said. “It is particularly important at this current political moment–when the tech industry is directly implicated in attacks on democracy–that we open up space to talk about not just what is happening, but also about how we might create technologies and tech systems that support rather than break communities and publics.”
