I direct the Design and Social Justice Studio, an interdisciplinary research group that together examine the ethical and political dimensions of emerging technologies. Research at the studio spans both theoretical inquiry and experimental design, situated at the intersection of Design, the Humanities, and Human Computer Interaction. We design and investigate a variety of design products and services (e.g., locative media, visualizations and mapping, policy media, social and educational media) drawing on a multiplicity of feminist methods and strategies, most notably participatory and co-design methods, ethnographic methods, experimental designs.
Projects are often in collaboration with other schools on campus as well as local non-profit and cultural organizations. Schools of Electrical Engineering; Public Policy; and Biology at Georgia Tech; the iSchool at the University of British Columbia; Faculty of Culture and Society at Malmö University are among the research collaborators. My studio has also worked extensively with organizations such as the Marcus Autism Center, the Mayo Clinic, and Fulton County Department of Health.
Researchers and students from across disciplines and levels contribute to the work of the studio.
RESEARCH GROUP
Aditya Anupam (he/him)
Postdoctoral Researcher
Research Interests: Games, Education, STS
Aditya is Postdoctoral Researcher at the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech. He received his Ph.D. in Digital Media in December 2021 from the same department. His research is situated at the confluence of science, media, and learning. Anchored in feminist, STS, and pragmatist scholarship, he explores digital media––particularly games, simulations, and interactive visualizations––as environments to foster the learning of science as a situated practice.
Email: aanupam3@gatech.edu
Sylvia Janicki (she/her)
PhD Student, Digital Media
Research Interests: Civic Media, Accessibility, Design
Sylvia is a first year PhD student in Digital Mediaat the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech, with a background in landscape architecture and urban design. Her research centers on issues of access and justice in urban environments and explores the intersections of built, digital, and bodily spaces. She is currently working with Dr. Nassim Parvin in the Design and Social Justice Studio to examine embodied experiences of sensing and data production with implications for designing affective technologies in smart cities.
Email: sjanicki3@gatech.edu
Mohsin Y. K. Yousufi (he/him)
PhD Student, Digital Media
Research Interests: Smart Cities, Data, Design
Mohsin is a Ph.D. student in Digital Media at the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech. His research is focused on exploring the application and implication of AI and Big Data to architectural design, with a focus on how these technologies can shape the experience of built-environment.
Email: myousufi8@gatech.edu
Katherine Bennett (she/they)
PhD Student, Digital Media
Research Interests: Reproductive Justice, Environmental Justice, Afrofuturist Feminism
Katherine is a PhD student in Digital Media at Georgia Tech. Her research traces intersections of reproductive and environmental justice in the literature and moving image media of speculative Black feminism. Her writing and multimedia fabrications explore how these representations recalibrate old optics of displacement by communicating what it feels like, and is, to queer colonial aesthetics embedded in territorial claims on people and land
Email: kbennett64@gatech.edu
Abigail Ellison (she/her)
Undergraduate Research Assistant, Literature, Media, Communication
Interests: Interactive Design, Accessibility
Abigail is an undergraduate student interested in interactive design, accessible design, and how spaces can be transformed to aid our communities. She is currently working with the Computational Media Capstone at Georgia Tech to document their projects.
Email: aellison32@gatech.edu
Ren Zheng (they/them)
Undergraduate Student, Computational Media
Interests: Visual Design, Interactive Art, Critical Making
Ren is an undergraduate student at Georgia Tech interested in exploring and telling interactive narratives about lived experiences. Particularly, their research area encompasses queer spaces/bodies, material culture, and the philosophy of work.
Email: rzheng11@gatech.edu
Master’s Students
MS, HCI (2021)
Master’s Project: “Engineers Learning Ethics through Interactive Gameplay”
MS, HCI (2021)
Master’s Project: “Speech on Twitter: Evaluation, Interventions and Solutions”
MS, Digital Media (2020)
Master’s Project: “A Digital Gallery Experience of Cosmetics in the 20th Century US”
MS, HCI (2020)
Master’s Project: “Mapping Surveillance Cameras and Making Urban Environments Readable”
MS, Digital Media (2020)
Master’s Project: “Heart Link: An Interactive Visualization of Embodied Social Connection”
MS, HCI (2020)
Master’s Project: “Analyzing the Social Implications of AI in Smart Cities”
MS, Digital Media (2018)
Master’s Project: “Retelling: An Interactive Afrofuturistic Map”
MS, HCI (2018)
Master’s Project: “Untangling the Perception of Sex Difference in Biological Research”
MS, Digital Media (2018)
Master’s Project: “Came from Nothing: An Interactive Documentary”
MS, HCI (2017)
Master’s Project: “Our Driverless Futures: Speculating Ethical Dilemmas of Self-Driving Cars”
MS, Digital Media (2017)
Master’s Project: “StoryCar: Connecting Atlanta’s Past with the Present”
MS, HCI (2016)
Master’s Project: “Designing for Conversation: A Digital Decision Aid for Diabetes Medication Choice”
MS, Digital Media (2016)
Master’s Project: “Our AIMS: Changing Organizational Culture through Co-Design”
MS, HCI (2015)
Master’s Project: “StoryCar: Connecting Sweet Auburn: Using Locative Mobile Media to Share Stories from Atlanta’s Historic District”
MS, Digital Media (2014)
Master’s Project: “Ambient Skyscapes: An Ambient Weather Installation Using Interactive Projection Mapping”
MS, HCI (2014)
Master’s Project: “Who Said it How (A Visual Analysis of Wendy Davis’s Filibuster News Coverage)”
