I am interested in relationship between information and agency in sociotechnical sites. I study sites and situations where human and technological agents interact or act upon each other because of information and information systems, especially robotics research laboratories and real-world robot deployments. I employ theoretical, qualitative, and sociotechnical methods in my work.

You can find my recent publications on Google Scholar and Academia.edu.

Agency and Information

I conduct theoretical and archival research on sites and situations where actions are taken because of information and information systems. I examine these phenomena empirically, theoretically, and technically. This includes work on:

• System-dependent truth
• Onto-epistemic injustice
• Documental agency
• Computational timekeeping
• The production of thermophysical facts through scientific forgetting
• In/justice and agency for experiencers in collaboration with Archives of the Impossible.

This research stream draws from and expands upon my dissertation research, which developed a framework for the analysis of certainty production in information systems, and applied that to the global sociotechnical endeavor of computational timekeeping.

Current and past collaborators in this stream of research include Kim Engels, Beth Patin, Joseph T. Tennis, and Steve Slota.

Sociotechnical Robotics

As a Co-Lead of the Living and Working With Robots project at UT Austin, I am studying the rollout of robots on the UT Austin campus. Together with 10 collaborators, I am applying a range of disciplinary perspectives and methods to the process of robotic design and research, the work of deploying and maintaining robots, and the effects these actions have upon the campus community. The project’s goal is to learn how the process of making and deploying technology impacts a community and how to enable technologists and community members to better understand and communicate with each other.

Specific projects in this research theme include:

• The dynamics of agency, autonomy, and care in robotics research
• The negotiated meanings of robots, domestic space, and the “real world” in the RoboCup@Home domestic service robotics competition
• Mixed methods HRI/STS studies of incidental encounters with quadruped service robots
• Improving incidental encounters with robots with expressive movement
• Novel methodologies for studying real-world encounters with robots
• Nurses’ perspectives on care robots and the participation (or lack thereof) of nurses in care robotics research
• A multi-site, participatory investigation of progress in robotics research: what it is, where it happens, and how it’s accomplished

Current and past collaborators on this stream of research include my many Living and Working with Robots Co-Leads, Stuart Reeves, Hannah Pelikan, and Nik Martelaro. Living and Working with Robots is supported by Good Systems, a UT Grand Challenge.

Collaboration for Convergent Research

I’m interested in understanding convergent researchers’ collaboration needs and developing tools to make them more successful. The National Science Foundation has identified convergent research as deeply interdisciplinary work that, from the outset, combines methods and perspectives to enable scientific innovation. Convergent research is central to my Living and Working With Robots and Archives of the Impossible collaborations. Participatory methods and deep technical expertise in research informatics are critical to addressing this research goal.

Projects in this theme include:

• Particpatory observation methods in team science
• Memory practices in robotics research
• Participatory study of convergent robotics research
• Humanities-Driven AI infrastructure for archival research of impossible experiences

Current and past collaborators in this research include Jeff Kripal, Keri Stephens, Samantha Shorey, Will Sutherland, and Mohammad Hossein Jarrahi.