My Dissertation Proposal: Speculation, Innovation, and Black Women

In November 2022, I presented my dissertation proposal to my committee to share what I wanted to research for my dissertation.

Along with watching my proposal, here is the abstract from the written proposal:

How do Black women, a marginalized group within a marginalized group, use their lived experiences to envision the future of technology—namely, a technology that touches or affects many lives around the world: online communities? When given the space to gather together and future in a co-design session or ethically speculate in one of three workshops, what do Black women technologists and Black women who engage with online communities respectively see as the future they hope for and the harms they want to avoid?

In order to structure these sessions and workshops and center them on Black women, a dual approach of Afrofuturism and technowomanism are necessary for study design, research question development, and analysis. Whereas Afrofuturism is an intersection of futuring, technology, liberation, and Blackness, technowomanism is the application of the womanist ethic to social justice issues that occur in and around the digital space. In turn, womanism is a version of Black feminism and feminisms of color that positions the experiences of Black women as valid starting points for examining and analyzing the world.

Anchored in Afrofuturism and technowomanism as theoretical underpinnings throughout the research, the aims of this work are to amplify the ideas and insights of Black women in the design, development, and innovation of future technologies to consider and recognize the importance of our perspectives. In doing so, we can show the researchers and creators of online communities that Black women have impactful and integral insights for technology that can radically liberate technology for all.

Keywords: Online communities, technowomanism, Afrofuturism, ethical speculation, Black women