I am a sociologist who specializes in studying the relationship between technologies and society, unearthing the assumptions that undergird our systems, and then building novel alternative technologies that express different possibilities, human values, or social relations. I’ve spent the past twenty years embedded with NASA’s robotic spacecraft teams exploring the solar system, giving me a front-row seat to how teams work collaboratively and remotely with robots and AI; and I’m a conscientious objector to the personal data economy, experimenting with tools from mobile Linux to on-the-box AI’s to try to live better online through my technical choices.
What are your responsibilities at the Keller Center?
I am leading our initiative to develop a world-class program in design, one that embraces and expresses Princeton’s commitment to the betterment of humanity through deliberative, informed, and thoughtful interventions. We have an opportunity to embrace what the Keller Center does best: building upon our interdisciplinary connections across campus to inspire innovation, produce novel research and outreach, and to teach our students how to create lasting change.
What attracted you to the Keller Center?
Keller is a meeting place for both those engineers who engage with the social sciences and humanities, and for the humanists and social scientists who engage with engineering (like me). Personally, I don’t fit into a disciplinary box: my background is in Science and Technology Studies, Information Sciences, and Critical Computing, all transdisciplines! Most of today’s complex problems also require that kind of multidisciplinary thinking to approach in a powerful way. I love how Keller stays focused on impact through understanding, connecting the disciplines to inspire innovation in engineering, and inspires the campus community to imagine what’s possible and the role each of us might play in ushering in a better future.
How are you involved with the Keller Center?
I arrived at Princeton in 2010 at the interdisciplinary Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts, and soon after began teaching my courses toward the Keller Center’s then-new Technology and Society certificate. Since then I’ve taught and advised hundreds of students associated with that terrific program, and led hands-on classes in human-computer interaction and critical design. I’ve published papers at professional conferences with our undergraduates, taught them how to build super cool systems that change how we approach the world.
