My Research

One thread of my research is interested in investigating the relationships between individuals’ and groups’ understandings and practices of consent (interpersonal), identities and social positions, and a technology and its features—what I call, technocultures of consent. So far, I have studied this in the context of online dating among women and non-binary people in the U.S. Arab and Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) diaspora.

I also research safety, trust and privacy in the context of one’s sexual and reproductive decisions, and am interested in the relationships between technology, power and an individual or communities’ bodily autonomy. I am particularly interested in how individual or communities’ self-determination over their reproductive lives is configured by technology and processes of anticipation, specifically in cases of anticipation work to secure desirable reproductive futures.

Research Areas

Research Keywords: health informatics, human-computer interaction (HCI), Science, Technology and Society (STS), Social Computing

Research Interests: Arab, Southwest Asian and North African Diaspora; Anticipation; Body Autonomy; Compassionate tech; Critical algorithm studies; Diaspora Studies; Health Information practices; Marginalization; Memory; Mental Health; Mobile health applications; Online Communities; Online Dating; Privacy; Reproductive Health; Sexual Health; Social media; Stigma; Surveillance; Technocultures of Consent; Well-Being

Ph.D. Milestones

Field Prelim Paper

For my 3rd Ph.D. Milestone, I have begun working on my Field Prelim paper on Technology, Anticipation and (Un)Desirable Reproductive Health Futures. As part of this project, I must write a critical literature review and propose a research project. Drawing from the fields of STS and Feminist Technoscience, Social Computing/HCI, and Reproductive Justice, my project will explore the relationship between anticipation and technology for ensuring desirable reproductive health futures. What is thought of as an (un)desirable reproductive health future may vary widely depending on the level of actor in focus (e.g. individual, communal, institutional, organizational). (Photo: Bianca Bagnarelli for the New York Times)

Pre-Candidacy Paper (PDF) and Defense (Slides)

For my 2nd Ph.D. Milestone, I submitted my pre-candidacy paper, U.S. Arab/SWANA Diaspora’s Technocultures of Consent: The Case of Online Dating Apps, to my committee in February 2024, and successfully defended this work in March 2024. My committee for this milestone is made up of my advisor, Dr. Nazanin Andalibi, and Dr. Sarita Schoenebeck and Dr. Apryl Williams.

Pre-Candidacy Proposal (PDF)

For my first Ph.D. Milestone, I submitted a proposal for my pre-candidacy project that explores U.S. Arab and Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) diaspora’s technocultures of consent as mediated by online dating apps. It was approved April 19th, 2023. Data collection and analysis will occur Summer 2023, with the Pre-Candidacy Paper forthcoming Winter 2024.