SIGDOC 2020 Keynote
Title: “Building Collaborative Networks to Support Women of Color in User-Experience and Technology Design”
Abstract: In this presentation, members of the Women of Color in Computing Collaborative will discuss a longitudinal project that they developed to establish sustainable pathways for women and women of color with humanities backgrounds to enter the technology industry. Using language diversity as a pathway to teaching and engaging in UX research, members of this team developed localized projects that seek to increase sustainable diversity and representation in UX. Through grounded stories stemming from this collaboration, the team will provide actionable strategies for increasing the representation of women and women of color in UX positions.
Bios
Estefania Castillo is a transfronteriza Chicana Feminist from Ciudad Juarez Chihuahua and El Paso Texas. No es ni de aquí ni de allá; es transfronteriza orgullosa. Recently, she graduated with an MA in Rhetoric and Writing from the University of Texas at El Paso. Her work looks to bridge UX and Chicana Feminism by incorporating testimonios and the shared lived experiences of marginalized communities into user experience.
Laura Gonzales is an assistant professor of digital writing and cultural rhetorics in the English Department at the University of Florida. Her research and teaching focus on the intersections of language diversity, community engagement, and technology design. She is the author of Sites of Translation: What Multilinguals Can Teach Us About Digital Writing and Rhetoric (University of Michigan Press, 2018). Gonzales leads and participates in multiple interdisciplinary research teams focused on designing multilingual technologies in community contexts.
Bibhushana Poudyal is a PhD Candidate at the University of Texas at El Paso, where she is working on her dissertation, Rethinking South Asia via Critical Digital A(na)rchiving from the Borderlands. In this project, Poudyal discusses and theorizes the precarities, negotiations, and affordances of building a digital archive through participatory approaches in the context of South Asia. Her research and teaching interests are grounded in anti-colonial and feminist/queer approaches to international technical communication and critical digital humanities. Poudyal’s investment in social justice approaches to technical communication and technology design expands beyond a single institution and is fueled by transdisciplinarity and community engagement.
Nora K. Rivera is a College Assistant Professor of Technical and Professional Communication at New Mexico State University. She is also a Ph.D. student at the University of Texas at El Paso in the Rhetoric and Composition program. She holds a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Arts in Spanish. In addition to industry experience, she has extensive experience teaching business, writing, and digital media. Rivera’s work focuses on technical communication, cultural rhetorics, and language. Her current research analyzes Indigenous interpreters’ approaches to technical communication and UX.
Joy Robinson is a UX Manager at Northrop Grumman and is responsible for overseeing multiple UX teams. Joy is also the founder of UAH’s Evaluation and User Experience (VUE) Lab –a UX and social science research lab–the only openly available human-centered research lab on campus. As faculty in the College of Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences, she teaches graduate UX courses. As an accomplished researcher, Joy has published articles on UX methods and practice, innovative teaching pedagogy, and collaboration across numerous communication and engineering journals. Her work has been published in TCQ, JTWC, CDQ, and IEEE ProComm. Her latest co-authored article, “Drawing on Personas: How User Personas Affect Creativity,” will be published in the journal of Technical Communication in November of this year.
Ann Shivers-McNair is an assistant professor and director of professional and technical writing in the English Department and affiliated faculty in the School of Information at the University of Arizona. Her book, Beyond the Makerspace: Making and Relational Rhetorics, is forthcoming from the University of Michigan Press. She serves as associate editor of Technical Communication Quarterly and as a co-organizer of UX@UA, a user experience professional community in Tucson.
Tetyana Zhyvotovska is a PhD candidate in Rhetoric and Writing Studies Program at The University of Texas at El Paso. She previously taught at the universities in Ukraine and the United States. Her research and teaching interests are situated at the intersection of technical communication, translation, and user experience.