ETHOS Lab at ITU invites new voices into the conversations about IT

ETHOS Lab is a research community at ITU, which is deeply rooted in feminist values and wants to increase diversity, equality, and inclusion into the tech-industry and at ITU. ETHOS Lab has recently held the event Feminist Futures Copenhagen Hackathon with the purpose of reclaiming the hackathon format and invite new voices into the conversations about IT and technology.

Written 8 June, 2023 10:57 by ditj

If you think that ETHOS Lab at ITU is named after the old rhetorical notion in ancient Greek, you are mistaken. ETHOS Lab stands for Experimental Techno-Humanities & Organizational Services, and the research community’s values, projects and events are both innovative and including.

ETHOS Lab is a research community at ITU where the members apply critical feminist methods to investigate new ways to explore the cross field between IT and society. Most of the ETHOS Lab researchers work on Science and Technology Studies, where they combine studying IT and technology with anthropology, sociology, philosophy, and history. Among other things, the researchers investigate how people interact with technology, and how technology is part of people’s life and social relations. Most importantly, the ETHOS Lab researchers share the goal of bringing more diversity, equality, and inclusion into the tech-industry and at ITU.

“There are many types of feminism, but our definition of feminism is rooted in politic, social, and economic equality between all people. When we talk about feminist values, we mean anti-racism, decolonization, and justice to everyone no matter their background. In ETHOS Lab, we try to incorporate these feminist values in our research projects and teaching for instance by questioning power structures and by challenging status quo,” says Henriette Friis, Lab Manager at ETHOS Lab at ITU.

The researchers at ETHOS Lab contribute to support the teaching at ITU as well at the course Navigating Complexity which is taught on the MSc in Digital Innovation & Management. “At ETHOS Lab, we value that everyone should feel welcome and represented at ITU. Furthermore, it is important to us at ITUs bachelors and masters comes from a wide demography. A wide representation of people means that the technology we create and pass on to society embodies and supports everyone,” says Henriette Friis.

Feminist hackathon that reclaims the hackathon format

With Henriette Friis in the lead, ETHOS Lab recently held the 17 days-event, Feminist Futures Copenhagen Hackathon. 40 people participated and worked on projects about systematical challenges in organizations and businesses. The projects resulted in specific solutions and outputs as well as philosophical reflections. The purpose of the feminist hackathon was to make ethical hacking more accessible and to invite new voices into the conversations on IT and technology.

”We want to include more people into the tech-industry and at ITU, because it matters a lot who writes the algorithms. We are people who live in a certain body, who look a certain way, and who are approached in certain ways by society. All of this is captured in the technology that we create. We need to ask ourselves who gets a seat at the table. Is it the same people and businesses who always have the resources? And what happens when we invite other people to participate and to set the agenda?” says Henriette Friis.

Henriette Friis has alongside her colleagues at ETHOS Lab created a unique new format for the recently held hackathon. They invented the new format to make it attractive and accessible for more people to participate – even for parents, people who have full-time jobs or full-time studies.

“With Feminist Futures Copenhagen Hackathon we reclaimed the hackathon format and made ethical hacking accessible for more people. We wanted to move away from the underlying principle that hackathons must be 48 or 72 hours straight, where the hackers live on energy drinks and pizza. We changed the format, and we held the hackathon over the course of many days and only a few hours a day. The new format implied that many people could take part in the hackathon and contribute to the conversation on IT and technology,” says Henriette Friis.

Further information

Ditte Ørsted Johansen, Press Officer, phone +45 25 55 04 47, email ditj@itu.dk