I’m Os, a PhD student in the Data Ecologies Laboratory at the University of Washington’s Department of Human Centred Design & Engineering, where my advisor is Professor David Ribes. I’m also part of the Science, Technology and Society Studies (STS) program, where I’m advised by Professor Anna Lauren Hoffmann.

I am a broadly STS-ish researcher, with a strong applied side: my joke title is “Sociologist with Menaces”. My current projects investigate how models of gender are encoded within dataset and algorithm design, and non-binary experiences in navigating gendered (virtual or real) infrastructure. More broadly my interests are data ethics, gender, infrastructure and control.

Despite the department name, my interests are more ethnographic and experiential than Engineering—in particular, I tend to work with interview data and content analysis—although I do come from a quantitative background.

Outside of academia I spend a lot of time engaged with the intersect of Seattle’s Jewish and trans communities, reading, and making truly heinous puns. I can be contacted at okeyes @ uw . edu. I’m always interested in chatting with people who have questions or interests related to pretty much any of the above.