Representing Aaron Swartz Institute in Brazil, André Sobral is a postdoctoral researcher at the Digital Technology for Democracy Lab in the University of Virginia’s Karsh Institute of Democracy.

As a sociologist specialized in the effects of technology over society, he has dedicated his career to the investigation of political applications of computers and social media platforms.

Aaron saw himself as an “applied sociologist”, despite the overwhelming public recognition of his talent as a programming expert.  Having dedicated a significant amount of his time to reading and writing about complex societal issues on the internet, Aaron found an audience for his thoughts mostly on matters related to computer and technology impacts. His role in the fight against the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act gave him a spotlight on media and recognition for some of his most relevant concerns on the open access to information.

However, his prolific theoretical production about other social issues was not given nearly as much attention. Institute Aaron Swartz Brazil aims to remedy this situation by developing a research effort on Aaron’s sociological thought. Analyzing all his textual production available online, we were able to map Aaron’s main concerns and academic influences. We will share the current developments of this research process and explain our goals to write a book to develop more recognition about Aaron’s interrupted path as an applied sociologist.”

The “Aaron Swartz: an interrupted social theory” research project, is the project of our technology instructor Teo Calvo “Data trails.”  It teaches programming for free to the public on his streaming channel and the inauguration of our headquarters and the “Educateathon” charity project, that teaches introductory notions of robotics, computer science, web and game development to brazilian favela’s children.