#AcademicRunPlaylist - 11/6/24

Today's a good day to post a picture of your dog, so here's mine curled up while I distracted myself with some talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist

First was an interesting talk by Jaime Arguello on understanding the "pathway" towards a searcher's objective at the Carnegie Mellon University - School of Computer Science - Language Technologies Institute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LNBiBckg4M

Next was "Fifth Sun" by Camilla Townsend, who has weaved together numerous historical accounts to provide a thorough examination of the history of the Aztecs (Mexica). This is particularly challenging because prior to contact with Spanish colonizers very little was recorded about this civilization. Townsend is intellectually honest about the process of stitching a variety of sources together - explaining where an account came from, its bias, and likely reliability - and combines them into an engaging narrative.

For those looking to understand the context of colonialism in Mexico and Central America more broadly this is a book that I can highly recommend https://global.oup.com/academic/product/fifth-sun-9780197577660?cc=us&lang=en&

Last was "Against Technoableism" by Ashley Shew (disabled). This book combines personal stories and holistic analyses of the discourse around a whole host of disabled communities to convincingly advocate for a reframing of how we conceive of people with disabilities and design technologies that lead to better outcomes. The sections on the issues with framing of disabilities are especially compelling. There are some broader pontifications against capitalism that are a bit distracting, but overall this is a great, quick read on an important topic. Highly recommend https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324036661