My research agenda focuses on the ethnographic study of the discursive and material practices of development, use and governance of emergent (and contested) digital media, sciences and technologies that interact with the body.
Here are some of my research projects, where I’ve worked as a PI. For more info on projects I have been participated in, please see my CV.
DATA&US: A SERIES OF CONVERSATIONS ABOUT DATA
Data is an inescapable aspect of contemporary life – it seems to permeate everything we do as well as what is done for us and in our name. Yet, its workings remain elusive and often invisible. The goal of this series is to contribute to a much need conversation on data, exploring its entanglements with our lives and imagining how it can be otherwise.
With an amazing roster of speakers we seek to make visible the political, economic, power, material, social and judicial dimensions of data, through an analysis of themes such as, AI in the home, planetary surveillance, mechanisms for holding big tech accountable, personal identity, and privacy, among others.
Once a month we meet online at 6.30pm (GMT) for a new conversation (in English). Attendance is free but registration is required. Register here.
Find out more about this series here.
What does it mean to track your body so as to obtain scientific truths about yourself? Can everything be modeled? What happens to the self and to embodiment as these practices become prevalent? What facts and figures about the body - about health, illness and normality - are being produced within the 'quantified self' movement? For whom are they being developed? By whom? For what? With what effects? What new theories and frameworks are being mobilized to justify and drive these efforts? Is the body informational and the self a project? In what ways is the body becoming a bodynet?
This research project seeks to examine the discourses and practices through which the body is (re)crafted within the Quantified Self (QS) grass-roots movement. Its goal is to understand how technosciences create particular modes of representing and enacting the body.
Want to know more? Want to participate?
This is a sample of my sleeping habits as they were tracked by zeo (a company that has since gone bankrupt). Sleep tracking is a major thing now, with a lot of companies creating soft and hardware for it. It is part of a larger movement that seeks to track and optimize the body and the world.
What does scientific self awareness mean? In this case, what is a ZQ, and what is a 'normal' ZQ? How is this number calculated? Am I a good sleeper?
Fitness tracking and improvement is a growing field. Apps and hardware can be bought off the shelf to provide you with statistics that you never knew existed. The goal is to know thyself so as to improve yourself with the implication that the previous body/self was deficient and ignorant of itself. What does this mean in practice?
Increasingly science funding bodies require that the publicly funded R&D projects integrate the social sciences so as to ensure that they are "socially responsible". What does it mean to be socially responsible? What roles are afforded to the social sciences within this model of integration? How are these projects implemented and evaluated? What is their goal?
Informed by feminist work on science and technology I am interested in examining how different modes of governance are developed, applied and evaluated. In particular I draw upon my work as the in-house social scientist at the Cornell NanoScale Facility and the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (USA).
A scientists teaches journalists and the single social scientist, only female, how to do nano in the laboratory.
(c) Kavli Institute at Cornell University
Some nanocantilevers that I did with the help of a colleague using the Cornell NanoScale Facility's cleanroom as part of my effort to learn nano and conduct an ethnography of the facility.
What does it mean to wear a computer? This question was a pertinent 10 years ago as it is now as we carry smartphones on our pockets all day long, and according to Google will be soon wearing connected glasses. What does it mean to transform the body into a bodynet?
Wearable computers are developed to augment human physical and cognitive abilities. Taking this assertion as a starting point this research project critically examines the multiple conflicted meanings of wearable augmentations. Drawing on science and technology studies approaches, in particular actor-network theory and feminist approaches, I explore the mutual shaping of wearable technology and user, from the visionary discourses of developers to the conflicted experience of implementation on the ground.
This research was the basis for my doctoral degree, and I am expanding it now. If you'd like a copy of the dissertation (Augmented Bodies: The Visions and Realities of Wearable Computers) please email me.
Developers tend to assume that more technology means more empowerment, and wearable technologies are the solution to being always on, always available. My research shows that workers feel differently. They experience wearable technologies as disempowering and as transforming their identities.
Information may be light, but its supports aren't. Here users make a wearable into a desktop
I am a feminist, a woman, a scientist, a mother, an educator, a citizen, an activist. My thinking is informed by that of other feminist scholars who are equally committed to creating and being accountable to a world that is inclusive of Others and alternative ways of being and doing.
Feminist Technoscience Summer School - 2016
In May 2016 I was one of the guest tutors invited to contribute to the amazing summer school in Feminist Technoscience Studies at Lancaster University.
In April of 2012 I co-organized a workshop on "The Politics of Care in Technoscience". It was a wonderful event that brought together prominent scholars, such as Charis Thompson, Lucy Suchman, Lorraine Code or Karen Barad. You can see the website here.
From 2000 to 2002, while I was still a doctoral candidate, I created and run the 'Privacy Lecture Series.' I am happy to say it was a tremendous success! You check it out here.
In September 2017 I will give a keynote at the closing session of the 3rd Conference "Rumos da Sociologia do Conhecimento, Ciencia e Tecnologia em Portugal". The session is called "Nanotechnology and Society: From research to the citizen". (7&8/09/2017)
In June of 2017 I was invited to give a keynote at the Joint Meeting of the Spanish and Portuguese STS networks, dedicated to the theme "Lost in translation? People, technologies, practices and concepts across boundaries". (From minute 22 onwards)
No dia 25 de Junho de 2015 às 18h apresentei resultados do meu projecto no 'Centro Interuniversitário de História das Ciências e da Tecnologia" da Universidade de Lisboa.
On 17-April-2015 I presented preliminary results of my ethnography of the London QS group.
In September of 2014 I was happy to present my research project on the Quantified Self at the QS London meeting. I discussed my research and its goals. You can see the video here.
In June 2013 I did a remote presentation for a Brazilian science communication web program, called 'Nanotecnologia do Avesso' or 'Nano inside out'. Using my experience as a former in-house social scientist, I spoke about the policy of integration that mandates the integration of social scientists within nanotech facilities. You can see the video here.
One of the things that I love doing is presenting for non-academic audiences. It forces me to explain myself better, and it is great to interact with people who care differently about the world. Here are some examples of things I've done.
Noite Europeia dos Investigadores 2016
On September 30th, 2016 I gave a sprint talk at the "European Researchers Night". I discussed the use of apps to monitor our everyday life and body and what this might mean for the future.
In January of 2016 I was invited to go on TV (TVI) to discuss my research and the use of apps to monitor one's health.
European Science TV & New Media Awards
In November 2015 I was invited to participate in a debate on the "Rosetta Mission". It was amazing!
Noite Europeia dos Investigadores 2013
In 2013 I was invited to participate in the European Researchers' Night. I took part in a debate on robots and society that was titled, "Queres ser meu amigo?" or "Can we be friends?" This event was organized by Ciencia Viva with funding from the EU and Marie Curie. It was held at Pavilhao do Conhecimento, Lisbon, Portugal, Sept. 27th 2013.
NanoGagliato 2009
The NanoGagliato was one of the most amazing things I've ever done. It is a yearly meeting of scientists, organized by Prof. Mauro Ferrari, that includes a public science discussion. I participated in its early days in 2009. The even was supposed to start at 9 or 10pm, but there were delays and we ended up starting it was past midnight. Amazingly nobody budged. This photo was taken as we were about to start, it was almost midnight, and the piazza was crowded with people, from seniors to babies, who sat there for a number of hours waiting and listening to us talk about nanomedicine.
