Life in the Network

Brunner has spent the last decade studying female leaders and power within school administrations. In 2002 she and colleagues from the University's Digital Media Center created Experiential Simulations (ES), an online environment similar to a chat room where people's true identities are masked to others in the group.

Each person is given a "modified persona"--an assigned gender, racial, class and positional identity unlike their own. They are instructed not to reveal personal details to one another. When they log in, each sees his or her own image, while their classmates see images and video that represent the assigned persona. The students are unaware of this, however, and assume that the others are seeing them as they actually are.

In this context, students work together in situations designed to show how their perception of other people shapes their own decisions. Offline, the students answer questions concerning their assumptions about power and stereotypes, their communication and their decision-making practices.

Afterward, they compare their profiles of themselves to cumulative data sets collected since 2002 that expose to them their skills in communication, leadership and collaboration, as well as their biases and how they use power.