Tech for Humanity Scholars
Tech for Humanity is happening across the entire university as scholars in every college and across centers and institutes incorporate human-centered questions, methods, and outcomes into their work.
Sylvester A. Johnson
Executive Director of Tech for Humanity and Assistant Vice Provost for the Humanities
His research examines the impact of intelligent machine applications and human-machine combining (cybernetics) on human identity, democracy, and race governance.
Scholars by Transdisciplinary Communities
Ashley Shew
Philosopher of technology who works at its interface with disability studies, emerging technology, and animal studies. Her current research looks at the narratives disabled people (like Shew herself) tell about their bodies and minds in relationship to technology - narratives that often run counter to ableist media messages about disability and technology.
Joseph C. Pitt
Focuses on the ways in which technological innovation impacts the way we live and work
Layne T. Watson
Software for science and engineering problems usable by nonspecialists.
Matthew F. Komelski
Design and lead mindfulness-based exercise interventions (Tai Chi, Qigong, MBSR, Etc.) for use in clinical and community-based studies. These forms of mindful movement are safe and effective ways to increase physical activity, reduce stress and anxiety, improve strength, balance and manage chronic pain. Unfortunately, access to these practices is limited, especially in rural areas, so he is interested in working with a team to leverage digital technologies to increase access, as well as our capacity to monitor and evaluate outcomes.
Susan L. Campbell
The goal of their research is to identify mechanisms that underlie seizure development and discover novel targets to treat epilepsy. A major focus of the laboratory is to determine how the most abundant biological reservoir of the planet, the microbial world, alters the communication between brain cells.
Webster L. Santos
Develop drugs for treating neurodegenerative disorders
Aisling Kelliher
Designing with AI in mind: creating semi-automated systems for rehabilitation in the home.
Akshay Sharma
Design as a catalyst for empowerment of women in emerging economies.
Ashley Shew
Philosopher of technology who works at its interface with disability studies, emerging technology, and animal studies. Her current research looks at the narratives disabled people (like Shew herself) tell about their bodies and minds in relationship to technology - narratives that often run counter to ableist media messages about disability and technology.
Daniel Pillis
An artist, creative technologist and researcher, bringing 10+ years of experience in technologically engaged creative fields. Their primary research interests are the function of simulation and immersion in human culture, in both the archaeology and history of early media as well as applications of simulation to new and emerging forms.
David Townsend
Explores the technological augmentation of human reasoning and adaptive intelligence in entrepreneurial environments.
Ivica Ico Bukvic
Explores connections among the science, engineering, arts, and design, with particular focus on creative enabling technologies. Most recently, Bukvic’s interest is in developing new creative tools that promote access, with particular focus on big data immersion, large-scale digital signal processing and spatialization, K-12 education and community engagement, and the integration of arts, quantified self, and multisensory feedback as a catalyst for mind & body health. IBukvic believes in transdisciplinarity, integrative and holistic approach to creativity and collaboration, and a better future through culture and technology. For additional information visit ico.bukvic.net.
James D. Ivory
Primary research interests deal with the social and psychological role of interactive digital media in society, particularly technologies such as video games, simulations, and virtual environments.
Kurt Luther
Research interests include human-computer interaction, crowdsourcing, and social computing. Luther directs the Crowd Intelligence Lab, which builds and studies crowdsourcing systems that support creativity and discovery, with applications in domains such as national security, journalism, history, biology, and design.
Mario Khreiche
Research focuses on Digital Labor, Platforms, Game Design, and the socio-technical production of automation and artificial intelligence.
Meaghan A. Dee
Graphic Design
Michael J. Stamper
Supports administrators, faculty, and students with their data and information visualization and design needs.
Nicholas F. Polys, PhD
Cognitive and Graphical aspects of 3D Scientific Visualization & Medical Imaging, Information & Interaction Architectures, especially the Web3D ecology, Human Computer Interaction & Usability Engineering in Virtual & Augmented Reality
R. Benjamin Knapp
Affect, music, and human centered design.
Sang Won Lee
Study, design, develop, and deploy interactive systems that facilitate empathy.
Scott McCrickard
Research and teaching focus on notifications and awareness of digital information for individuals and groups of people, particularly in outdoor settings. He helps lead Virginia Tech's Technology on the Trail initiative, which explores impacts of technology on extended hikes and similar outdoor activities.
Todd Ogle
Investigates strategies and methods for making the unseen seen via immersive experiences. Over the last decade, Ogle has used augmented and virtual reality to bring hidden histories to life, engage young learners in inquiry-based learning, and improve decision-making ability in spatially and contextually authentic immersive simulations.
Tom Martin
Areas of scholarship include wearable computing, electronic textiles, and interdisciplinary design for pervasive computing.
Nicholas F. Polys, PhD
Cognitive and Graphical aspects of 3D Scientific Visualization & Medical Imaging, Information & Interaction Architectures, especially the Web3D ecology, Human Computer Interaction & Usability Engineering in Virtual & Augmented Reality
Layne T. Watson
Software for science and engineering problems usable by nonspecialists.
Edward J.K. Gitre
A cultural and intellectual historian of the modern United States, Gitre is directing a Virginia Tech-based, interdisciplinary digital initiative, The American Soldier in World War II. With support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Social Science Research Council, and National Archives, this project is using crowdsourcing and advanced computing to make available to the general public a remarkable collection of WWII documents that vividly captures the everyday experiences of American soldiers. The University has recognized Gitre's integration of digital literacy and the digital humanities into his course offerings with an xCaliber Award.
Mario Khreiche
Research focuses on Digital Labor, Platforms, Game Design, and the socio-technical production of automation and artificial intelligence.
Michael J. Stamper
Supports administrators, faculty, and students with their data and information visualization and design needs.
Bert Huang
Works on machine learning research, focusing on methods (1) train models with lower-cost human annotation effort, (2) ensure fair treatment of people by learned algorithms, and (3) automatically analyze human behavior in online social platforms.
Stephen H. Edwards
In Computer Science education research, Edwards studies the human aspects of how students receive feedback in the classroom, and how we can engineer systems to produce feedback that engenders more positive, encouraging, and supportive human responses while fostering more productive student work habits.
Sudipta Sarangi
His research focuses on how networks form: the role of costs, benefits, and technology and how these interact to create individually stable and socially optimal networks using tools game theory and graph theory.
Tanu Mitra
Digital misinformation, online extremism, online civil discourse, technology designs to foster critical thinking in the context of information and news consumption on social media, human-centered algorithmic designs
Tom Ewing
Teaching and research explore the implications of thinking about data in social context.
Christopher Zobel
Disaster resilience and humanitarian operations management
Kurt Luther
Research interests include human-computer interaction, crowdsourcing, and social computing. Luther directs the Crowd Intelligence Lab, which builds and studies crowdsourcing systems that support creativity and discovery, with applications in domains such as national security, journalism, history, biology, and design.
Feng Lin
Working to improve energy storage solutions for sustainable energy and clean environment.
Layne T. Watson
Software for science and engineering problems usable by nonspecialists.
Kenneth H. Wong
Applications of Artificial Intelligence in healthcare. Focus areas in healthcare include trauma care in austere/field environments and radiology/radiation oncology.
Rebecca J. Hester
Scholarship focuses on the social, ethical, and political implications of scientific and technological advances in biotechnology, biomedicine, and public health
Kim Niewolny
From a cultural and participatory community development context, Niewolny’s scholarship intersects with the Tech for Humanity initiative in three related areas: 1) the politics of socio-technical innovation for food system sustainability; 2) human-centered assistive technologies for farmworker mobility, accessibility, and equity; and 3) ontological implications of sustainability technologies with emphasis on systems-level network innovation.
Mauro J. Caraccioli
Focuses on the interplay of faith, nature, and imperial science in Colonial Spanish America. His research highlights texts and encounters that broaden the cultural boundaries of New World intellectual production. He also writes on histories and logics of environmental extraction in contemporary Latin America.
Nicholas F. Polys, PhD
Cognitive and Graphical aspects of 3D Scientific Visualization & Medical Imaging, Information & Interaction Architectures, especially the Web3D ecology, Human Computer Interaction & Usability Engineering in Virtual & Augmented Reality
Layne T. Watson
Software for science and engineering problems usable by nonspecialists.
Ralph P. Hall
Technology, Globalization, and Sustainable Development: Transforming the Industrial State
Christopher Zobel
Disaster resilience and humanitarian operations management
Edward J.K. Gitre
A cultural and intellectual historian of the modern United States, Gitre is directing a Virginia Tech-based, interdisciplinary digital initiative, The American Soldier in World War II. With support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Social Science Research Council, and National Archives, this project is using crowdsourcing and advanced computing to make available to the general public a remarkable collection of WWII documents that vividly captures the everyday experiences of American soldiers. The University has recognized Gitre's integration of digital literacy and the digital humanities into his course offerings with an xCaliber Award.
Charles Clancy
Technology and policy at the intersection of security, autonomy, and digital communications
Idris Adjerid
Uses econometric methods as well as lab and field experiments to study the economics of privacy with a focus on the intersection of behavioral economics and privacy decision-making. My work often highlights the limited ability of individuals to make complex privacy trade offs online in a self-interested manner.
Janine S. Hiller
Legal and ethical approaches to addressing the impacts of technology on human centered problems; such as, issues of data ethics, equality, privacy, and autonomy in smart cities, healthcare, and cybersecurity.
Timothy W. Luke
Critical theory, environmental thought and politics, cyberculture and society, science and technology studies, and rapid climate change and human adaptation challenges
Christopher Zobel
Disaster resilience and humanitarian operations management
Kurt Luther
Research interests include human-computer interaction, crowdsourcing, and social computing. Luther directs the Crowd Intelligence Lab, which builds and studies crowdsourcing systems that support creativity and discovery, with applications in domains such as national security, journalism, history, biology, and design.
Myounghoon Jeon
Research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of the human mind and designing better interactions between people and technologies.
Nicholas F. Polys, PhD
Cognitive and Graphical aspects of 3D Scientific Visualization & Medical Imaging, Information & Interaction Architectures, especially the Web3D ecology, Human Computer Interaction & Usability Engineering in Virtual & Augmented Reality
Nathan Lau
Software for science and engineering problems usable by nonspecialists.
Brian Britt
One area of his research is the fascination with new technologies of war on the part of twentieth century thinkers like Ernst Jünger and Walter Benjamin. He’d like to develop this interest in the direction of the political theologies of war technology in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Alexander Leonessa
Expertise spans numerous aspects of improving the quality of life of people with disabilities, from exoskeletons, to prosthesis and brain stimulation as well as offering summer camps to high schoolers with disabilities.
Suqin Ge
Research focuses primarily on labor economics and Chinese economy.
Nicolaus Tideman
Global Economic Justice
Andy Scerri
Environmental Politics, Policy, and Ethics
Max Stephenson Jr.
Professor Stephenson works on international development, peace building, and community change.
Shalini Misra
(1) Social, psychological, and health implications of the Internet and digital communication technologies; (2) Environment and behavior studies, specially focusing on the psychological and health impacts of environmental stressors such as information overload and multitasking; and (3) Science of team science, or the study of the processes and outcomes of large scale transdisciplinary collaborative scientific, training, and action research initiatives.
Scholars by Issue
Ivica Ico Bukvic
Explores connections among the science, engineering, arts, and design, with particular focus on creative enabling technologies. Most recently, Bukvic’s interest is in developing new creative tools that promote access, with particular focus on big data immersion, large-scale digital signal processing and spatialization, K-12 education and community engagement, and the integration of arts, quantified self, and multisensory feedback as a catalyst for mind & body health. IBukvic believes in transdisciplinarity, integrative and holistic approach to creativity and collaboration, and a better future through culture and technology. For additional information visit ico.bukvic.net.
Tom Martin
Areas of scholarship include wearable computing, electronic textiles, and interdisciplinary design for pervasive computing.
Daniel Pillis
An artist, creative technologist and researcher, bringing 10+ years of experience in technologically engaged creative fields. Their primary research interests are the function of simulation and immersion in human culture, in both the archaeology and history of early media as well as applications of simulation to new and emerging forms.
Todd Ogle
Investigates strategies and methods for making the unseen seen via immersive experiences. Over the last decade, Ogle has used augmented and virtual reality to bring hidden histories to life, engage young learners in inquiry-based learning, and improve decision-making ability in spatially and contextually authentic immersive simulations.
Tacie Jones
Exploring the intersection between creative technologies and social practice art.
Meaghan A. Dee
Graphic Design
Rachel Lin Weaver
An artist and filmmaker, her creative practice spans moving image, sound, installation, and community-led collaboration. She utilizes new media art technologies in rural and postcolonial contexts, and explores the intersections of human and nonhuman forces alongside themes of identity, place, ecology, and narrative.
Emma Stamm
In her dissertation she investigates the relationship between data science, epistemology and digital capitalism. Machine learning and artificial intelligence are implicated in her research.
Tom Ewing
Teaching and research explore the implications of thinking about data in social context.
Michael J. Stamper
Supports administrators, faculty, and students with their data and information visualization and design needs.
Mario Khreiche
Research focuses on Digital Labor, Platforms, Game Design, and the socio-technical production of automation and artificial intelligence.
Sudipta Sarangi
His research focuses on how networks form: the role of costs, benefits, and technology and how these interact to create individually stable and socially optimal networks using tools game theory and graph theory.
Timothy D. Baird
Studies the effects of mobile phones on gendered social-networks, decision-making and vulnerability within several Maasai communities in northern Tanzania.
Jonathan Briganti
Focuses on student-driven consulting group, called DataBridge, for data and research practices across Virginia Tech. They train students in a variety of data-driven skills (cleaning, collection, database development, visualization, programming, etc) alongside client/consulting skills, and then give students the opportunity to solve ill-defined problems with immediate real world applications. This model allows for students to gain experience in transdisciplinary teams and projects that directly stem from the fantastic research happening at VT. Clients, typically researchers across the VT community, also receive help, scripts, and support for their research. As students enter a world where data is king it is crucial they learn to develop practical solutions and workflows surrounding data science. Some example projects students have assisted on is: creating an open repository for the data surrounding the opioid epidemic, assisting in longitudinal analysis of mental health data in older adults, preparing tools for field work where internet access is limited, and much more.
Dr. Alan Abrahams
Text analytics for discovering and prioritizing product safety concerns from online consumer reviews
Jason Deane
Applied and theoretical development of computer mediated solutions to organizational challenges
Tanu Mitra
Digital misinformation, online extremism, online civil discourse, technology designs to foster critical thinking in the context of information and news consumption on social media, human-centered algorithmic designs
Bert Huang
Works on machine learning research, focusing on methods (1) train models with lower-cost human annotation effort, (2) ensure fair treatment of people by learned algorithms, and (3) automatically analyze human behavior in online social platforms.
Francois Debrix
Critical and human-centered approaches to security studies and political violence, including the use of lethal technologies and strategies in global politics; critical approaches to media and visual studies
Charles Clancy
Technology and policy at the intersection of security, autonomy, and digital communications
Akshay Sharma
Design as a catalyst for empowerment of women in emerging economies.
David Townsend
Explores the technological augmentation of human reasoning and adaptive intelligence in entrepreneurial environments.
Idris Adjerid
Uses econometric methods as well as lab and field experiments to study the economics of privacy with a focus on the intersection of behavioral economics and privacy decision-making. My work often highlights the limited ability of individuals to make complex privacy trade offs online in a self-interested manner.
Janet Abbate
Historian of computing with particular interest in gender issues (Recoding Gender, MIT Press, 2012) and computing as a source of social and economic opportunity.
Nicolaus Tideman
Global Economic Justice
Suqin Ge
Research focuses primarily on labor economics and Chinese economy.
Pamela B. Teaster
Studies surrogate decision making for older adults, as well as elder abuse and end-of-life decision making
David L. Brunsma
Human Rights
Carrie Kroehler
Center for Communicating Science helps people learn to connect, communicate, and collaborate across differences.
Chreston Miller
Focuses on temporal analysis of human behavior: human behavior analytics
Janine S. Hiller
Legal and ethical approaches to addressing the impacts of technology on human centered problems; such as, issues of data ethics, equality, privacy, and autonomy in smart cities, healthcare, and cybersecurity.
Patricia Raun
Exploring best practices to help people in highly specialized or technical fields develop their skills of human connection and collaboration.
Kurt Luther
Research interests include human-computer interaction, crowdsourcing, and social computing. Luther directs the Crowd Intelligence Lab, which builds and studies crowdsourcing systems that support creativity and discovery, with applications in domains such as national security, journalism, history, biology, and design.
Lara Khansa
Research lies where knowledge of technological artifacts and knowledge of human behavior meet. Within the context of human-computer interaction (HCI) research, she has investigated the paradoxical behavior of people online (e.g., technology addiction, privacy disclosure behavior). In addition, like her investigation of HCI that focuses on the relationship between people, technology, and organizations, Khansa’s second research focus, healthcare analytics, centers on harnessing technology to improve the human condition.
R. Benjamin Knapp
Affect, music, and human centered design.
Aisling Kelliher
Designing with AI in mind: creating semi-automated systems for rehabilitation in the home.
Deborah Tatar
Design and build technologies that help people structure their worlds to act as the beneficent people they often wish they were.
Layne T. Watson
Software for science and engineering problems usable by nonspecialists.
Stephen H. Edwards
In Computer Science education research, Edwards studies the human aspects of how students receive feedback in the classroom, and how we can engineer systems to produce feedback that engenders more positive, encouraging, and supportive human responses while fostering more productive student work habits.
Mohammed Seyam
Usability Engineering, teaching Software Engineering with a focus on human-centered design
Sang Won Lee
Study, design, develop, and deploy interactive systems that facilitate empathy.
Rafael N.C. Patrick
Research is grounded in human factors principles and techniques. More specifically, it focuses on the seamless integration of human and machine/technology components for optimal system performance by maximizing psychophysical capabilities while utilizing a user-centered design approach intended to improve efficiency within dynamic real-world environments.
Myounghoon Jeon
Research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of the human mind and designing better interactions between people and technologies.
Nathan Lau
Software for science and engineering problems usable by nonspecialists.
Nicholas F. Polys, PhD
Cognitive and Graphical aspects of 3D Scientific Visualization & Medical Imaging, Information & Interaction Architectures, especially the Web3D ecology, Human Computer Interaction & Usability Engineering in Virtual & Augmented Reality
Katrina M. Powell
Oral history methodology and born-digital oral history archives for two (related) projects: VT Stories and Resettled: Beginning (Again) in Appalachia
Edward J.K. Gitre
A cultural and intellectual historian of the modern United States, Gitre is directing a Virginia Tech-based, interdisciplinary digital initiative, The American Soldier in World War II. With support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Social Science Research Council, and National Archives, this project is using crowdsourcing and advanced computing to make available to the general public a remarkable collection of WWII documents that vividly captures the everyday experiences of American soldiers. The University has recognized Gitre's integration of digital literacy and the digital humanities into his course offerings with an xCaliber Award.
Christine Steer
Teaching Concepts of the Humanities through the Study of Video Games
Brian Britt
One area of his research is the fascination with new technologies of war on the part of twentieth century thinkers like Ernst Jünger and Walter Benjamin. He’d like to develop this interest in the direction of the political theologies of war technology in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Mauro J. Caraccioli
Focuses on the interplay of faith, nature, and imperial science in Colonial Spanish America. His research highlights texts and encounters that broaden the cultural boundaries of New World intellectual production. He also writes on histories and logics of environmental extraction in contemporary Latin America.
Aaron Ansell
Uses ethnographic methods to understand Brazilian democracy, especially the relationship between regional political cultures and state policies aimed at broadening and deepening poor people's social inclusion.
Nathaniel D. Porter
Studies the informal ties between religious and cultural groups as mediated by social media, books, and technology.
James D. Ivory
Primary research interests deal with the social and psychological role of interactive digital media in society, particularly technologies such as video games, simulations, and virtual environments.
A. Roger Ekirch
Numerous publications on the history of human sleep that have upended traditional notions of what constitutes "normal sleep," leading to profound changes in the practice of sleep disorders medicine, especially the treatment of the most common disorder, middle-of-the night insomnia, which afflicts 15% of adults in the U.S. and has been tied to a variety of other medical disorders.
Andy Scerri
Environmental Politics, Policy, and Ethics
Lee Vinsel
Examines the relationship between government, including regulation, and technological change. Recently, Vinsel’s research has focused on the history and sociology of maintenance and repair and why we often neglect these topics in our superficial pursuit of "innovation."
Max Stephenson Jr.
Professor Stephenson works on international development, peace building, and community change.
Ralph P. Hall
Technology, Globalization, and Sustainable Development: Transforming the Industrial State
Cara Daggett
The politics and ethics of energy; global environmental politics; feminist science and technology studies
Kim Niewolny
From a cultural and participatory community development context, Niewolny’s scholarship intersects with the Tech for Humanity initiative in three related areas: 1) the politics of socio-technical innovation for food system sustainability; 2) human-centered assistive technologies for farmworker mobility, accessibility, and equity; and 3) ontological implications of sustainability technologies with emphasis on systems-level network innovation.
Timothy W. Luke
Critical theory, environmental thought and politics, cyberculture and society, science and technology studies, and rapid climate change and human adaptation challenges
Scott McCrickard
Research and teaching focus on notifications and awareness of digital information for individuals and groups of people, particularly in outdoor settings. He helps lead Virginia Tech's Technology on the Trail initiative, which explores impacts of technology on extended hikes and similar outdoor activities.
Lei Zuo
Director of NSF I/UCRC Center for Energy Harvesting Materials and Systems (CEHMS). Zuo has published over 100 journal papers and 150 conference papers and secured over $10M research grants as PI plus $2M as a co-PI. He advised over 50 PhD and MS students to completion.
Christopher Zobel
Disaster resilience and humanitarian operations management
Feng Lin
Working to improve energy storage solutions for sustainable energy and clean environment.
Felicia Etzkorn
Created a course in Green Chemistry and wrote a textbook called "Green Chemistry: Principles and Case Studies." Green Chemistry seeks to avoid the use and production of toxic and hazardous chemicals, and to minimize waste of materials and energy. Chemistry for people and the planet!
Kenneth H. Wong
Applications of Artificial Intelligence in healthcare. Focus areas in healthcare include trauma care in austere/field environments and radiology/radiation oncology.
Matthew F. Komelski
Design and lead mindfulness-based exercise interventions (Tai Chi, Qigong, MBSR, Etc.) for use in clinical and community-based studies. These forms of mindful movement are safe and effective ways to increase physical activity, reduce stress and anxiety, improve strength, balance and manage chronic pain. Unfortunately, access to these practices is limited, especially in rural areas, so he is interested in working with a team to leverage digital technologies to increase access, as well as our capacity to monitor and evaluate outcomes.
Joseph C. Pitt
Focuses on the ways in which technological innovation impacts the way we live and work
Shalini Misra
(1) Social, psychological, and health implications of the Internet and digital communication technologies; (2) Environment and behavior studies, specially focusing on the psychological and health impacts of environmental stressors such as information overload and multitasking; and (3) Science of team science, or the study of the processes and outcomes of large scale transdisciplinary collaborative scientific, training, and action research initiatives.
Rebecca J. Hester
Scholarship focuses on the social, ethical, and political implications of scientific and technological advances in biotechnology, biomedicine, and public health
Monique Dufour
Her research examines the impact of books and reading on health.
Cora Olson
Works at the intersections of medicine and the humanities in effort to find more ways to promote and maintain the emotional and physical well being of physicians and equitable ways of doing medicine.
Robin Queen, PhD, FACSM
Focuses on expanding the understanding of pathologic gait, movement mechanics, and loading asymmetry in non-surgical and surgical populations. This work also includes the exploration of post-surgical mechanics and function through multi-disciplinary teams composed of engineers, anthropologists, and medical professionals. Finally, the translation medicine component to her work is an exploration of targeted interventions involving both therapeutic techniques and devices, in various patient populations with the goal of altering patient care and improving outcomes and long-term health.
Barbara Allen
Does community-based participatory environmental health research with poor and working-class communities facing health issues due to pollution and other environmental exposures. Specifically,she works with residents to produce rigorous, relevant epidemiology-based health outcome data about their communities that empowers them to become effective agents for change.
Susan L. Campbell
The goal of their research is to identify mechanisms that underlie seizure development and discover novel targets to treat epilepsy. A major focus of the laboratory is to determine how the most abundant biological reservoir of the planet, the microbial world, alters the communication between brain cells.
Webster L. Santos
Develop drugs for treating neurodegenerative disorders
Christine Labuski
Directs the Gender, Bodies & Technology initiative at Virginia Tech. Visit her website to learn more about the biannual conference and events.
Ashley Shew
Philosopher of technology who works at its interface with disability studies, emerging technology, and animal studies. Her current research looks at the narratives disabled people (like Shew herself) tell about their bodies and minds in relationship to technology - narratives that often run counter to ableist media messages about disability and technology.
Alexander Leonessa
Expertise spans numerous aspects of improving the quality of life of people with disabilities, from exoskeletons, to prosthesis and brain stimulation as well as offering summer camps to high schoolers with disabilities.
Balbir K. Singh
At the nexus of critical ethnic studies and women of color feminisms, her scholarship interrogates the convergence of racial, gendered, and religious embodiment, with migration and policing under violent conditions of imperial and domestic security technologies. She is currently at work on her first book, Militant Bodies: Violence and Visual Culture Under Islamophobia, which is rooted in questions that center post-9/11 racial and religious hyper-policing of Muslims and Sikhs, especially as they relate to bodily comportment and the donning of religious garments.
Liz Spingola
Research pertaining to the creation of accessible digital engineering education coursework for physically and cognitively disabled students.