Working with students who invented a new type of mouse for their Intro to Science, Technology, and Society course.

J.J. Sylvia IV is a Doctoral Candidate (ABD) in the Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media Program at North Carolina State University and has recently served as scholar in Duke University’s PhD Lab in Digital Knowledge and HASTAC. He also received his M.A. in Philosophy from The University of Southern Mississippi and B.A.’s in Philosophy and Communication from Mississippi State University.

J.J’s research interests include the philosophy of communication and information, critical data studies, and digital pedagogy. His current work is focused on assessing the impact of big data and algorithms on processes of subjectivation. By developing a feminist approach to information, he aims to bring an affirmative approach to contemporary data studies that highlights the potential for big data to offer new experimental approaches to subjectivation. This work is being developed in his dissertation project: A Deleuzian Approach to Big Data, with his committee: Stephen B. Crofts Wiley (Chair), N. Katherine Hayles (Duke University), Rosi Braidotti (Utrecht University), Jeremy Packer, and Andrew Johnston.

In addition to his research, J.J. has also taught a wide variety of courses to students of many different ages. He has taught philosophy to middle school students through the Frances A. Karnes Center for Gifted Studies and high school students through both the Mississippi and North Carolina Governor’s School programs. At the college level he has taught courses in a variety of departments, including Philosophy, English, Communication, and Science, Technology and Society.