The University of Michigan’s Digital Studies Institute (DSI) was established in 2019 as LSA’s home for innovative scholarship on digital technologies and culture. Building on its origins as a pilot program launched in 2014 within the Department of American Culture, the DSI examines how rapidly evolving technologies shape culture, society, and everyday life, with particular attention to their ethical, social, and cultural implications. Today, the DSI is one of the largest and most comprehensive initiatives of its kind in higher education and serves as a national leader in the study of digital technologies and culture.
At the DSI, we study digital technologies not just as tools, but as cultural forces that shape how people communicate, learn, govern, create, and imagine the future. The Institute serves as a center for research, collaboration, and dialogue where faculty, students, and visitors critically engage questions of identity, power, and social justice. Our work addresses transformations in personal identity, experiences of marginalization and unequal access, and the growing ethical challenges of digital environments. Questions about how technologies intersect with race, disability, gender, sexuality, class, and power are central to our teaching, research, and public programming.
The cornerstone of the DSI is our undergraduate minor, complemented by a graduate certificate program, both of which offer a diverse and interdisciplinary curriculum. Course topics range from the history of the internet and artificial intelligence to digital surveillance, race and video games, and critical practices in XR design and social media activism. These programs prepare students to be informed users of digital technologies and thoughtful, pragmatic critics of our digital present and future.
Beyond the classroom, the DSI convenes dynamic public programming that brings scholars, artists, and practitioners into conversation with our campus and broader community. Through the DSI Lecture Series and related events, invited speakers address diverse topics on the cultural, social, and ethical dimensions of digital technologies.
Each summer, the Digital IDEAS Summer Institute offers an intensive, week-long training program for graduate students, early-career scholars, and technologists working at the intersection of emerging methods and social justice–oriented digital scholarship. Participants engage in topics such as inclusive design and disability justice through lectures, hands-on workshops, and collaborative peer networks that extend well beyond the week itself.
DSI students carry this critical knowledge beyond the university—into communities, tech companies, nonprofits, and policymaking spaces. We invite our alumni and friends to stay connected by mentoring students, attending events, sharing expertise, or supporting our work through a gift to the Digital Studies Institute Strategic Fund. Together, we can continue building a more just, creative, and equitable digital future.
