Lab Group

Current Members

Melissa (Mez) Perez

Doctoral Student. Mez Perez is a doctoral candidate in a dual program in Information and Educational Studies. Her research sits within computing education, learning sciences, and youth studies. She regularly works within making and makerspace contexts, aiming to better understand how youth of color work to (re)define, (re)organize, and (re)imagine making and makerspaces, especially as they are used with STEM-oriented learning environments. Through her work, Mez aims to surface alternative futures for engaging in STEM disciplines that center the desires of the youth and their communities. 

Anubha Singh

Doctoral Student. Anubha is a doctoral candidate at the School of Information, University of Michigan. She studies how data-driven technologies are being integrated into farming and agricultural practices in India. Through long-term ethnographic inquiry of the onion supply chain in Maharashtra, she focuses on the “everyday politics” of automation in food governance and interrogates the many technological promises that sustain it. Her work is informed by and contributes to the fields of Agricultural Anthropology, Postcolonial and Feminist Science and Technology Studies, History of Computing, and Critical Cultural Studies.

Pelle Tracey

Doctoral Student. Pelle Tracey is doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan School of Information. He is a mixed-methods researcher, interested in infrastructure, bureaucracy, algorithms, and data work, particularly in frontline government contexts. His current work uses ethnographic methods to examine how cities in the US make sense of homelessness through data, and how people experiencing homelessness make sense of this state response. His work draws from, and contributes to, CSCW, Critical Data Studies, Media Studies, and HCI.

Tam Rayan

Doctoral Student. Tam is a doctoral student in the School of Information. Their research interests lie within critical archival studies, diaspora studies, and digital studies, through which they seek to better serve and represent the recordkeeping needs of ethnic groups impacted by forced displacement, political conflict, and/or exile. Their current work focuses on the memory work practices of Palestinians in diaspora, specifically examining how oral histories, embodied memories, and storytelling mobilize the past to reimagine futurity.

Nazelie Doghramadjian

Doctoral Student. Nazelie is a doctoral student in the School of Information at the University of Michigan. She holds a B.A. in Humanities from Villanova University. Before starting graduate school, Nazelie worked for a variety of non-profit organizations including Data & Society Research Institute, Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance, and A Better Tech NYU. Her research is currently focused on archival silences and personal recordkeeping practices, specifically in the Armenian community in metro-Detroit.

Isabelle “Beck” Mallwitz

Doctoral Student. Beck is a doctoral student in the School of Information. Their research explores the connections between queer studies, disability justice, education, and technology. Their current work looks at the cultural perceptions of gender and genderqueerness as influenced by internet communities, as well as queer informatics, how information about queerness is passed around online. Through their work, Beck seeks to celebrate trans joy, speculate queer disabled futures, and imagine the possibilities for accessible education.

Past Members

Oliver Shapton

Undergraduate Student. Oliver is an undergraduate student studying information sciences with a focus in user experience design. Along with his interests in ux design he is passionate about furniture design and fine arts. His research focuses on the intersection between community justice issues and computing education. His current work highlights the value and history of music within communities and social activism and how computing skills can provide new ways for youth to explore music.

Cecilia H. Fernández

Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Cecilia Henríquez Fernández is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the School of Information at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on broadening participation in STEM, and is grounded in sociocultural theories of learning and culturally sustaining pedagogies. She examines the daily STEM practices of girls of color to develop inclusive and transformative experiences for girls of color. Her current research examines the relationship between girls’ lived experiences and STEM practices. 

Gladys Garcia 

Graduate Student. Gladys Garcia is a graduate student in the Digital Archives, Library Science, and Preservation track of the Master’s of Science in Information at the University of Michigan, School of Information (UMSI). As a research assistant, she collaborates on developing a culturally responsive model for teaching STEM in public libraries and training librarians in culturally sustaining pedagogy. Her other research interests include leveraging archival work to address human rights abuses in Latin America & the Caribbean. She has over four years of experience working in community-based archives in Southern California.

Crisol Beliz

Graduate Student. Crisol is a graduate student at UMSI on the Data Science, Data Analytics, and Computation Social Science track. Her research interests include digital humanitarianism and leveraging data for social change. Before attending the University of Michigan she attended Grand Valley State University where she earned her bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies, and a certificate in Latinx Studies. As a Ronald E. McNair Scholar she plans on pursuing a PhD  and has conducted research exploring the activism and mobilization of Latinx communities.

Sumra Alvi

Graduate Student. Sumra Alvi is studying Health Informatics at the University of Michigan’s School of Information and School of Public Health. She is passionate about bridging the equity gaps in healthcare by designing compassionate, people-centric technology interventions. As a research assistant, she leverages design theory, principles in intersectional feminism, and computational thinking to empower young women to explore STEM education.

Alison Wang

Graduate Student. Before coming to the University of Michigan, Alison has been working as an HR for five years in an international education company in Shanghai. Wishing to generate a more direct impact on the end-user (i.e. students and educations) and promote educational equity through EdTech solutions,  she decided to pursue a further degree at the University of Michigan School of Education studying Design and Technologies for Learning.

Kaily Metz

Undergraduate Student. Kaily Metz is an undergraduate student studying computer science in the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan. She is interested in research that aims to include people from underrepresented communities in STEM education. Kaily also plans to study biology, and she hopes to pursue a career in biotechnology with a focus in medicine.