I’m Os Keyes, a PhD student at the University of Washington’s Department of Human Centred Design & Engineering, where I mostly work on myself.

When I am not working on myself, I study (very generally) gender, disability, technology and/or power. I want to understand the role technology plays in constructing the world, and how we might construct a better one. Specific research questions I’m interested in or working on include:

1. How do facial recognition systems encode and inscribe notions of race and gender? For that matter: what notions?
2. What role does science and biomedicine play in measuring or authenticating trans existences?
3. What implications does artificial intelligence have for disability in general, and autism in particular?
4. How does classification shape people? How do those people resist that shaping?

Answering these questions involves too many books and influences (and methods, and disciplines). Right now I like Medina, Hacking, Star, Plummer, Srinivasan and Mbembe. Sometimes I even pretend to be smart enough to understand Mbembe. Aside from all of that, I am supported by and an inaugural winner of the Ada Lovelace Fellowship, and also teach in Seattle University’s honours program for fun.

I can be contacted for random questions, speaking engagements and offers of high-value cheques at okeyes @ uw . edu. Please note my title is “Mx”, not “Ms”, “Miss”, or “Mr”.