Programs
Engagement is crucial to our work. CISI strives to create reciprocal partnerships, trust networks, and dynamic programs that turn intelligence into community action in the public interest.
CISI Workshops
CISI workshops combine technical training with relevant and actionable findings, shared by expert practitioners on the frontlines of cross-disciplinary research and advocacy. In 2025 we are partnering on programs that reach and serve four key professional groups who interface with the public and share mission alignment in ways large or small. Our goal is to meet practitioners where they are, understand their pain points, and provide preparation and inspiration for lasting institutional resilience.
To connect with our team about hosting a workshop, please send us an email.
Journalists and Investigators:
Investigations Workshop
Our Investigations Workshop helps newsrooms and other institutions build training capacity for tracking and data scraping as platforms and actors rapidly change. We build partnerships that co-evolve a responsive curriculum for journalists and other investigators on themes relevant to our research programs, including threats to safety and privacy for vulnerable groups.
The Critical Internet Studies Institute and The Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory (3CT) at the University of Chicago co-hosted the first CISI Investigations Workshop for journalists, researchers, and advocates for civil rights in 2024. The program featured networking events, a knowledge and technical capacity-building training on Telegram from ProPublica senior staff, and a civil society discussion on technology and human rights featuring leading voices from the Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, and Check My Ads.
Journalists, Researchers, and Civil Society:
Networked Incitement
The CISI team supports civil society and truth-telling institutions in understanding the phenomenon of networked incitement and its relationship to trends and tactics in online disinformation campaigns. Our team of trainers not only teach the latest evidence and concepts, but also assist practitioners in technical capacity-building for further observation and action on their own.
Below, CISI Co-Director Dr. Joan Donovan discusses relevant actors with Northwestern University historian Dr. Kathleen Belew at the University of Chicago.
Librarians:
Knowledge Needs Our Work (KNOW)
Truth needs an advocate. CISI works with leading organizations such as the Library Freedom Project and Internet Archive to aid and grow a cohort of professionals who can better understand and foster DIY practices to face up to the challenges of disinformation-at-scale. This is especially relevant as generative artificial intelligence accelerates an already-expanding information crisis borne of monopolized media ownership and deep citizen distrust.
As the guardians and custodians of public information integrity, librarians ensure that timely, accurate local knowledge (TALK) starts in the community–and remains accessible to all.
Technologists as Builders and Advocates:
Public Interest Internet
Through workshops and brownbags, CISI helps technologists who are interested in building, and advocating for, a public interest internet more capably analyze technology as a political tool. We source these insights directly from practice.