CCI Hosts “Film Screen with a Dean”
On February 26, UNC Charlotte’s College of Computing and Informatics (CCI) and Dean Fatma Mili took its turn hosting Film Screen with a Dean, a multi-disciplinary film series for which academic leaders from across campus select and show compelling documentaries, each followed by a panel discussion (see panelist roster below).
The College of Health and Human Services (CHHS) opened the series in January with “What the Health,” featuring intrepid filmmaker Kip Andersen uncovering secrets to preventing and even reversing chronic diseases – and why the nation’s leading health organizations don’t want us to know about it.
Mili chose “The Great Hack,” which explores how data company Cambridge Analytica came to symbolize the dark side of social media in the wake of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The award-winning 2019 Netflix film is narrated by media professor John Carroll, whose international lawsuit to regain control of his personal data serves as the film’s catalyst. “The Great Hack” blends details about how strides in technology and data analysis have given rise to a massive, global expansion of a new brand of social experiment, one that involves reshaping the world in a particular image – an image for sale to the highest bidder.
Following the film, audience members gathered in the Cone Center’s McKnight Theater were invited to submit questions for a cross-curricular panel discussion. Touching on the social, political, legal, ethical and technical implications of data rights and responsibilities, the conversation was simultaneously enlightening and troubling – especially in the middle of another national election year.
The series continues on April 23, when the Atkins Library will show, “Paywall: The Business of Scholarship,” which documents the high profits and business practices of the academic publishing industry and efforts to reform it.
“The Great Hack” Panelists
- Dr. Fatma Mili – Dean, College of Computing and Informatics (CCI)
- Dr. Liyue Fan – Assistant Professor; Data Privacy, Spatio-temporal Databases, and Machine Learning; CCI
- Dr. Susan Roberts – Professor of Political Science, Davidson College
- Dr. Consuelo Carr Salas – Assistant Professor; Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies; College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS)
- Dr. Doug Hague – Executive Director; School of Data Science (SDS)
Photo Credit: Habib Dan Aouta