Dividing Lines: Why Is Internet Access Still Considered a Luxury in America?

Subtitle

featuring Maria Smith of the Berkman Klein Center

Teaser

Internet access is a major social and economic justice issue of our time. Dividing Lines, a four-part documentary video series, sheds a light on who is being left behind as big telecom flourishes.

Parent Event

Berkman Klein Luncheon Series

Event Date

Mar
27
2018
12:00pm

to

Mar
27
2018
12:00pm

Thumbnail Image: 

Tuesday, March 27, 2018 at 12:00 pmHarvard Law School campusVideo and audio will be updated to this page soon!

The online world is no longer a distinct world. It is an extension of our social, economic, and political lives. Internet access, however, is still often considered a luxury good in the United States. Millions of Americans have been priced out of, or entirely excluded from, the reach of modern internet networks. Maria Smith, an affiliate of Berkman Klein and the Cyberlaw Clinic, created a four-part documentary series to highlight these stark divides in connectivity, from Appalachia to San Francisco, and to uncover the complex web of political and economic forces behind them.   

 

About Maria

Maria Smith is a Project Coordinator working with Professor Susan Crawford in Harvard Law School's Cyberlaw Clinic and leading the efforts of the Responsive Communities project within Berkman Klein. She is focused on the intersection of technology deployment and social and economic justice. Maria is also a documentary filmmaker whose productions expose the impacts of and forces behind America's stark digital divides. She made her directorial debut in college with the film One Nation, Disconnected, in cooperation with the Harvard Law Documentary Studio, that details the hardship of a teenager growing up in New York City without internet access at home. Dividing Lines, a four-part series, is in production this year.   

 

Maria first joined the Berkman Klein and Harvard Law communities as an undergraduate conducting teaching, research, and project support for Professor Susan Crawford. Maria graduated from Harvard College with a B.A. in Economics. In college she was invested in work with the Global Health and AIDS Coalition and co-chaired the annual Women’s Leadership Conference. She worked as an intern for the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, Connecting for Good, and Morgan Stanley.