I am an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan’s School of Information where I run the Anthropology and Technology Lab (ATL). As a sociocultural anthropologist I use ethnographic methods to study how marginalized communities collaboratively design, access, and participate with information communication technologies (ICTs) in politically and resource-constrained contexts. I am specifically interested in the ways people rely on social relationships to confront issues of power, resistance, and agency informed by the fields of Anthropology, CSCW (Computer Supported Cooperative Work), ICTD (Information Communication Technologies & Development), and Feminist Science and Technology Studies (STS).

Specifically, I study: (1) internet access in resource-constrained regions; (2) the design of citizen-led information systems; and (3) social media use for social change.

Read more about me here.

RECENT NEWS

[June 2022] I was awarded the Elizabeth C. Crosby Research Award to support new fieldwork in Flint, MI, exploring information technology use and collaborative resistance alongside Latinx communities there.

[Feb 2022] I presented my work on relational infrastructures in Havana, Cuba, at the Cuban and Cuban American Studies Conference at the University of Florida.

[Oct 2021] I presented my paper, “The Relational Infrastructure of Cuban Splinternets” at the Annual Meeting for the Society of the Social Studies of Science (4S).

[Jan 2020] My paper, Un Grano de Arena: Infrastructural Care, Social Media, and the Venezuelan Humanitarian Crisis was published in CSCW.

[Apr 2020] My workshop paper, Internet-human infrastructures: Lessons from Havana’s StreetNet, with Abigail Z. Jacobs was nominated as a best paper at The Web Conf Workshop on Innovative Ideas in Data Science

[Feb 2020] I participated in the Computing Research Association (CRA) Career Mentoring Workshop.

[Jan 2020] I was an invited panelist at the launch event for the new Center for Ethics, Society, and Computing (ESC), led by Christian Sandvig and Silvia Lindtner.

[Jan 2020] I joined the Center for Ethics, Society, and Computing (ESC) at the University of Michigan as an affiliate faculty member.

[Dec 2019] I joined the Digital Studies Institute (DSI) at the University of Michigan as an affiliate faculty member.

[Nov 2019] I presented my paper, “If it Rains, Ask Grandma to Disconnect the Nano: Maintenance & Care in Havana’s StreetNet” at CSCW 2019 in Austin, TX.

[Nov 2019] I presented my work at the Politics and Design of Collaboration: A Grassroots Perspective workshop at CSCW 2019.

[Sept 2019] My paper, “If it Rains, Ask Grandma to Disconnect the Nano: Maintenance & Care in Havana’s StreetNet”, received a Best Paper Honorable Mention at CSCW 2019.

View archived news items here.