I am a social scientist studying the social implications of emerging technologies in organizational contexts. My research spans the intersections of organizing, social interaction, work, gender, culture, and ethical issues in technological or alternative contexts. I currently focus on these strands of research: creative collaboration in design; contextual and spatial influences on organizing; privacy and social networking; gender and STEM careers; and ethics and emerging technologies. Methodologically, I use both computational and qualitative analytic tools to study interaction and organizing, including wearable sensor technologies, network analysis (both social and semantic), as well as narrative and ethnographic tools. Theoretically, my research is grounded in sociomaterial practices of organizing, and draws upon ecological theory in understanding the situated nature of social and material interactions.
My research has been published in top journals including Organization Studies, Communication Monographs, Management Communication Quarterly, SIGCHI, Annals of International Communication Association, Journal of Mechanical Design, Journal of Motor Behavior, and Acta Psychologica. I have been awarded over $2 million in grants to support my research and teaching, including $1.1 million in two grants from the National Science Foundation. I have also been funded by the Department of Homeland Security, corporate foundations, Purdue Research Foundation, and the College of Engineering.
In addition to engaging with larger publics about my research through public speaking, the media, and industry research, I have been engaged on campus, in the community, and nationally, including serving as Head of the Media Technology Society unit in the Brian Lamb School of Communication; Chair of the Diversity Action Committee (College of Liberal Arts); Co-Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee (College of Liberal Arts); Convenor of the University Council on the Status of Women; member of the Provost’s Task Force on Computing and the Provost’s Task Force on Child Care; and a member of the U.S. Public Policy committee of the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery).
