My first time attending the Console-ing Passions conference last week was an absolute delight. Returning to an in-person conference after several years of virtual attendance felt really exciting, and meeting this  incredible group of feminist and queer media researchers made the environment feel welcoming, safe, and full of possibility (in a moment where that feeling is *desperately* needed).

Big shout-outs to the conference organizers Mel Stanfill and Anastasia Salter and their team of exceptional graduate students for pulling off a fun and informative event. You all crushed it.

The abstract and talk for my conference paper, Refacing Gender in Digital Assistant Technologies, is now available online.

​Looking forward to seeing everyone in Calgary next year at Console-ing Passions 2023!

Abstract:
Recent examples of virtual assistant technologies designed as Latina information service workers are noteworthy objects of study for their potential to bridge analyses of Latinas’ labor history and information technology. Latinas in the United States have traditionally worked in blue-collar information technology sectors characterized by repetitive labor and low wages, such as electronics manufacturing and customer service. Latina information service workers, though fundamental to technoscience, have been largely invisible in histories of computing. Latina virtual assistants mark a shift in this labor history by relying on the strategic visibility of Latina identity in/as the technology interface. Our research explores Latina virtual assistants designed by Airus Media and installed as airport workers in airports along the southwestern border of the United States. We situate the technocultural narratives present in the design and marketing of these technologies within the broader histories of invisible Latina information labor in the United States. We find continuities between the ways Latinas have historically been positioned as “ideal” information workers and the use of Latina identity in the design of virtual assistants. We argue that the strategic visibility of Latina virtual assistants is linked to the oppressive structures of invisibility that have traditionally organized Latina information service workers.

Cite as: Sweeney, M. E., & Villa-Nicholas, M. (2022). Digitizing the “Ideal” Latina Information Worker. American Quarterly, 74(1), 145–167. https://doi.org/10.1353/aq.2022.0007. (Pre-print available at http://ir.ua.edu/handle/123456789/7549.) 

I'm happy to share a new article, "Alexa, Are You Listening? An Exploration of Smart Voice Assistant Use and Privacy in Libraries", published with co-author (and SLIS alum) Emma Davis about smart voice assistant use in libraries. Our research explores library use of smart voice assistant technologies in user services and programming, documenting many as-of-yet unresolved privacy issues that these technologies pose for patron communities and also library staff. We urge library workers to consider that smart voice assistants pose harm to many of our patrons as extensions of policing data networks, and argue that the LIS profession has a responsibility to actively engage questions of technological harms and data privacy before advocating adoption of emerging technologies like smart voice assistants in library services.

Read more in our full article, available open access:

Sweeney, M. E., & Davis, E. (2020). Alexa, Are You Listening? An Exploration of Smart Voice Assistant Use and Privacy in Libraries. Information Technology and Libraries, 39(4). https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v39i4.12363

I'm excited to share the news that I have received a $299,997 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for an interdisciplinary project that I am a co-PI on: “Using Problem-Based Learning to Increase the Ethical Reasoning Skills of Electrical and Computer Engineering Students”

The grant will kick off a three-year study that explores how engineering students’ perceptions of social responsibility (used in this work to describe the obligation that professional engineers have to act with the welfare and interests of society at large) changes after participation in this ethics focused course, the persistence of these changes over time, and compare these perceptions against engineering students from other disciplines without the freshman ethics focus. 

We'll be integrating critical information and data perspectives in the training of engineering students to leverage inter-disciplinary skillsets that are often siloed outside of STEM and not represented in engineering ethics training.

Faculty investigators are Todd Freeborn (PI, Engineering), Claire Major (co-PI, Education), and myself (co-PI, Library and Information Sciences). ​​

The Center for Critical Internet Inquiry (C2i2), led by Dr. Safiya Umoja Noble and Dr. Sarah T. Roberts, announced the exciting news that they have received a $2.9M Award to launch the multi-year Minderoo Initiative on Technology and Power initiative:

Congratulations to C2i2 for receiving this award; I'm so excited to be joining C2i2 as a part of their Scholar's Council, which comprises a team of "scholars, artists, activists, and leader who share a commitment to standing up to unjust technologies and systems." 

I'm looking forward to working with this amazing group of people to support the development of a better future. Stay tuned!