During the 1900 Paris Exposition, W. E. B. Du Bois displayed over 60 hand-drawn, color data visualizations to document the progress, education, and socioeconomic conditions of Black Americans following emancipation. A pioneer sociologist and data visualization designer, Du Bois used data to tell powerful and intentional stories that we can continue to learn from.
During this session, Dr. Whitney Battle-Baptiste will join us to reflect on these visualizations through W.E.B. Du Bois’s Data Portraits (2018),the collection she co-edited. We will explore what Du Bois's data work teaches us about centering people in our data stories, using data as a tool for liberation and advocacy, and designing with a clear understanding of audience and purpose.
About this group:
We are a group of data users in Connecticut who are supporting one another as we work toward more equitable data practices. We focus on racial equity explicitly but not exclusively.
Some of the topics we talk about include:
How can we make sure we don't make certain groups invisible through how we disaggregate our data?
How can we learn to focus our attention on the strengths, rather than the deficits, of groups we are seeking to serve or support?
How can we learn from the people who we hope will benefit from our products or services about what their data means to them?
How can we help the institutions that we are part of to be trustworthy so that people will trust us with their information/data?
You can read more about our past events here.
Please feel free to check out the group. And if it is helpful, please share it!