“To see things as they really are…you must imagine them as they might be.”
-Derrick Bell-
About this course
Course Description
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HIS 419/550: Rage Against the Machine is a class that explores the history of white supremacy in and beyond the United States. No topic could be timelier and more important in light of the racist massacre in Buffalo New York just over a year ago, where an avowed white supremacist killed Black patrons at a Tops supermarket. Sadly, racially motivated, and especially anti-Black violence in the United States has been all too common for too long and is on the rise. White Supremacist violence against Latinx, Asian, Indigenous, Jewish, many immigrants and other minorities is also rising. We must do what we can to address this trend and work toward a better country and a better world.
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Students in "Rage" will have the opportunity to work on a project with peers in a CSE 440/441/540 Machine Learning and Society to address the problem of white supremacy from a historical and technological perspective. Impossible Project: End White Supremacy offers a unique opportunity for humanities students to work with computer scientists and engineers in a truly cross-disciplinary collaboration centered on social justice. Your work in this class will directly address a pressing problem in our world. Given the internal and external financial sponsorship that this class enjoys, your work will also garner a wider audience beyond the walls of the classroom and UB. This is an exciting opportunity.
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Our class is composed of three units and a finale section. Each unit is three weeks long and has a theme that will be explored historically and in the present day through the lenses of history and technology: Unit 1: Healthcare, Unit 2: Criminal Justice, Unit 3: Misinformation. The first two weeks of each unit are taught within the discipline. Thus, students in Rage will explore each unit historically while learning to hone “tools” drawn from historical study that can help them tackle each problem area in the present. The third week of each unit is combined. During the third week of each unit, Rage students will have the opportunity to learn about the machine learning and work across disciplines in teams with students in CSE. By the end of the second unit, your teams will be asked to determine the focus of your final research project. Librarians and a student research mentor will be available for research consultation/support in each discipline. The last unit, our finale unit, will be composed of workshop/lab work preparing your final projects for presentation day, which is May 15 @ 8 am.
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Due to generous sponsorship from Mozilla Foundation and the Center for Information Integrity, we can offer the most promising team and project $5,000 in research funds to pursue their idea beyond the class.
Click here to find out more about our companion class in Computer Science and Engineering: Machine Learning and Society
Days/Times/Places
Room: Norton 216
Days/times: M/W 10-11:20 am
Office Hours: By appointment only. Email me.
Switch classes: Norton 209- see calendar
Combined classes: Norton 209- see calendar
All group communications: Piazza/ UBlearns [Brightspace]/email
Rage communications: Brightspace and my Ubmail: daliamul@buffalo.edu
About Me.
Dr. Dalia Antonia Caraballo Muller is Associate Professor of Latin American and Caribbean History at the University at Buffalo. She formerly served as Associate Director of UB’s Caribbean and Latin American Studies Program (2009-2016), Director of UB’s University Honors College (2017-2020) and Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education (2017-2020). A graduate of Yale University (BA) and the University of California, Berkeley where she obtained her MA and PhD, Dr. Caraballo Muller dedicates herself to the twin (and intertwined) passions of historical research in her field and educational program development for social and planetary good. The through line that connects her historical work and her work in education is the concept of “impossibility.” She is currently researching African and Afro-descended intellectuals in early 20th century Cuba who thought at the limits of the possible as they staked claims to rights, dignity and equality in a world that denied their full humanity. In the classroom, Dr. Caraballo Muller invites her students to stretch their minds and think at the limits of the possible in order to dream up new futures for our ailing world and planet.
Dr. Caraballo Muller is the author of Cuban Émigrés and Independence in the Nineteenth-Century Gulf World (UNC Press, 2017), fellow of the SUNY Hispanic Leadership Institute, and founder of the Impossible Project.
Our Co-Instructors.
Dr Atri Rudra
Computer Science and Engineering
Dr. Rudra is interested in Theoretical Computer Science and belong to the Algorithms and Theory group at UB.
Of late I am also interested in questions at the intersection of computing and society and belong to the Computing for Social Good group at UB. Specific topics of interest include structured linear algebra (with applications in machine learning), database algorithms, theory of error-correcting codes, algorithms and society.
Dr. Kenny Joseph
Computer Science and Engineering
Dr. Joseph is an assistant professor in the CSE Department at the University at Buffalo who works mostly with folks in the Computing for Social Good group. He has been a postdoc at the LazerLab at the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University and a fellow at Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science. Joseph completed graduate work in the Societal Computing program in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, where he studied under Kathleen Carley in the CASOS lab.
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Mentors/Researchers
Atallia Brown
My name is Taynia Atallia Brown. I immigrated to the United States from Jamaica 6 years ago. The move to Syracuse, New York, led me to Corcoran High School, where I found solace in independent hobbies like chess and the STEP program at Syracuse University, exploring diverse subjects from forensic science to photography. Today, I am a senior majoring in history with a minor in law.
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I am crafting my thesis, titled "The Legacy of 'Unfitness': Unveiling the Shadows of Eugenic Sterilization in North Carolina." As a future historian, I aim to advocate for immediate changes in women's medicine, focusing on race, disability, and ethics. The notion that the past is unchangeable obscures a problem rooted in the reluctance to acknowledge and take responsibility for acts perpetrated against thousands.
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Looking ahead to graduate school and a potential Ph.D. in history, my focus on medical history emphasizes the importance of legal frameworks, regulations, and cases in medicine. I am constantly developing my ability to analyze sources to enhance my understanding of historical contexts in medical practices, patient care, and institutional regulations. This skill set is crucial for my research and future roles as a history professor and active researcher. Beyond teaching, I aspire to be a political analyst in healthcare, addressing issues with data insights. Bridging historical research with contemporary challenges, I aim to contribute to shaping the discourse on medical policies and their implications, reflecting the confluence of my cultures, disciplines, and aspirations.
Elliot Seminario
Hello! My name is Elliot Seminario (he/him). I am in the last undergraduate year of the UBTeach program for my masters in Social Studies Education in Adolescence. My work at UB had a bit of a delayed start since I came in during peak COVID, when everything was online and about as impersonal as it could get. For around two years, I have been working part-time as a Community Assistant at the apartment complex. I’ve lived at since moving to Buffalo, and very recently I managed to secure a promotion and begin working full time. Additionally, I was a recipient of the Milton Plesur Scholarship Fund in Spring 2023, and also helped found the Undergraduate History Association as its Secretary, a club for anyone interested in the field of history which holds its top priorities to ensure inclusivity and to create a safe environment for all who attend. My focus in history is hard to pinpoint since there is so much that I am interested in, but I am trying to narrow it down to Latin American history. I was accepted into the Honors Thesis program at UB in 2023, where I have set my eyes on the Tupac Amaru Rebellion and problematizing the concept of collectivism and the extent that it applies to the rebellion. I will be completing the program this semester, and am unimaginably excited to work with Dr. Langfur to create a work that will be worthy of my Peruvian heritage.
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