PhD defence by Valeria Borsotti

Title

Making Trouble: Reconfiguring Equity & Accessibility in Computer Science

Abstract

This PhD project is based on a three-year ethnographic engagement in the Department of Computer Science at UCPH (DIKU) and explores challenges and opportunities for equity and accessibility in computer science. To do action-oriented research on equity is to make trouble, by identifying and disrupting normative structures and dynamics, and by giving visibility to bottom-up, collective strategies for change that fall outside ‘the norm’.

This research is both norm-critical and norm-creative. It examines how norms and values are (re)produced in institutional spaces through sociomaterial practices, data and artefacts (norm-critical analysis), and it generates change at different scales, within and without the department (norm-creative mode).

The project highlights the intricacies and potentialities of enacting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) work in unstable and open complex cooperative settings, expanding the traditional empirical domains of Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) research. It also expands the scope of DEI work in computer science by including disability, an area long considered “a different diversity” (Kim & Aquino, 2017). The analytical framework interweaves CSCW, feminist technology studies, organization studies, and critical access studies.

Supervisors

Professor Pernille Bjørn, DIKU

Assessment Committee

Professor Morten Misfelt, DIKU/IND
Professor Paul Dourish, University of California, Irvine
Associate Professor Marisa Cohn, IT University of Copenhagen
Moderator of defence: Professor Barry Brown, DIKU

For an electronic copy of the thesis, please visit the PhD Programme page. 

Accessibility

♿ To request an accommodation or for inquiries about accessibility, please contact Valeria Borsotti at valeria.borsotti@di.ku.dk
Accessible restrooms are available near the auditorium. You can find an overview of accessible parking spots here.