Simone Browne, author of Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness: “Smart University is a much-needed sociohistorical analysis of how data capture, surveillance, and austerity measures govern student life in higher education. From algorithmic recruitment and neoliberal wellness apps to the punitive digital tracking of Black student-athletes and invasive exam proctoring software, Weinberg brilliantly demonstrates that rather than enhancing learning, edtech and other digital tools often reify structural inequities. This book is a crucial addition to critical information studies, with far-reaching implications for questions of privacy, education policy, and computing platforms.”
Audrey Watters, author of Teaching Machines: The History of Personalized Learning: “The ‘smart university’ is a site of surveillance and austerity, and Weinberg’s book underscores that the so-called innovations promised by new technologies have both undermined learning and accelerated inequality. An important corrective to the narratives of ‘digital transformation.”