Volatile Contexts: Identity, Technology and Politics in a Moment of Danger
Wednesday, April 13, 2022 | 7:00 PM PDT
Presented by We Are The Voices, Mills College Trans Studies Speaker Series, and the
Mills College Office of the President and the Office of the Interim Provost and Vice
President of Academic Affairs
Internationally acclaimed technologist and network security expert, Chelsea Manning, engages in a wide ranging public conversation with event host and Barbara Lee Chair in Women’s Leadership, Dr. Susan Stryker. The talk-show style event will explore questions ranging from national security and surveillance, artificial intelligence, trans rights, critiques of the carceral complex, and prison abolitionism.
Chelsea E. Manning is a technologist and network security expert whose actions showed the world that
the conscience of individuals can make urgent change through bravery and determination.
She speaks on the social, technological, and economic ramifications of Artificial
Intelligence, and on the practical applications of machine learning. She is a vocal
advocate for government transparency and
queer and transgender rights as @xychelsea on Twitter and through her op-ed columns
for The Guardian and The New York Times.
Manning worked as an intelligence analyst for the U.S. Department of Defense where
she publicly disclosed classified documents that revealed human rights abuses and
corruption connected to the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Upon being sentenced
to 35 years for unauthorized disclosure of government documents—an unprecedented amount
of time for the charges alleged—she publicly identified as a trans woman and asserted
her legal rights to medical therapy. After serving 7 years in military prison, President
Barack Obama commuted her sentence to time served. She was released in
2017. After release in 2017, she ran in the 2018 Maryland state senatorial primary,
receiving the second highest number of Democratic votes (just over 6%). In 2019, she
was the subject of the documentary film XY Chelsea. In March 2019, she refused to
testify before a federal grand jury on ethical grounds. She was jailed for a year
and forced to pay a civil fine of $256,000. In 2021, Manning worked as a security
consultant for Nymtech, a privacy oriented technology project, before transitioning
to an employee for Nym as a hardware optimization and security advisor.
We Are The Voices is a Mellon Foundation Higher Learning funded project linking Mills College students and faculty with poets and scholars working in Oakland and beyond.
The Mills College Trans Studies Speakers Series, hosted by Emmy-Award winner Susan Stryker, Barbara Lee Distinguished Visiting Professor in Women's Leadership, offers a regular public forum for exploring transgender issues with some of today's leading thinkers, artists, and activists.
