sylvia
_darling
I’m a doctoral researcher graduating with a PhD from the University of Michigan School of Information in 2025. My dissertation studies how people broker and transform information amid contexts of extreme inequality to achieve their aspirations.
Based on a two-year ethnography of migrant communities in Honduras, I make the case that certain people become ‘information brokers’ in pursuit of their dreams: they engage in a patchwork of information in their quest for a better life, albeit in a world where structural inequities push them to leverage disparate fragments of knowledge, each piece carrying its own risks and rewards. I draw on themes of grassroots intelligence, information poverty, and the complex dynamics of migration.
See my CV and resumés, both industry and federal.
Soy investigadora en la Facultad de Información en la Universidad de Michigan en los EEUU. Investigo cómo cierta gente en Honduras negocian información — es decir, la organizan, la combinan y la transforman — para lograr sus deseos en medio de una desigualdad socioeconómica extrema.
︎ ︎ ︎
Research areas
Areas de investigaciónThe generalist (and humanist) in me has led me to produce research that is interdisciplinary by luck and ethnographic by design. Lately, I draw from theories of information science, aspiration and capability, and the anthropology of migration as I forge linkages between information practices, human mobility, and the pursuit of the “good life.”
I also support research that leverages human-computer interaction and information communciation technologies for social change to benefit communities historically underserved by Silicon Valley. To this end, I have studied the impacts of technology on undocumented immigrants in the United States, Detroiters living in food deserts, Honduran migrants attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, Habaneros bridging the digital divide in Cuba, and victims of online harrassment in the Global South.
The geographic spread is wide but the moral constant is this: building theories of social change predicated not on damage but on desire, à la Eve Tuck. The U.S. Fulbright Program, the Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship, the Tinker Foundation, and my home department are all generous sponsors of my work.
Uso métodos de etnografía—es decir, observo la sociedad de una forma participativa—pero mis investigaciones son interdisciplinarias. Me baso en estudios de migración; interacción humano-computadora; antropología cultural; tecnologías de la información y las comunicaciones para el cambio social; y estudios de ciencia, tecnología y sociedad. Temas incluyen aspiraciones y capacidades en materia de migración; política de información transnacional; reintegración; dataficación y activismo ciudadano; adaptación sociotécnica; y diseño culturalmente receptivo. Mis investigaciones son patrocinadas por el Programa Fulbright, la Fundación Tinker, el Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship y mi departamento universitario.
Updates
ActualizacionesJune to August 2023
I interned as an analyst for the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the “investigative arm of Congress.” With the Forensic Audits and Investigative Service team, I analyzed medical provider fraud risk in the country’s largest healthcare program and gained an understanding of institutional challenges that impact health insurees, dependents, and American taxpayers at large. Plus, I learned about the impartial and painfully meticulous ways in which the agency ‘follows the dollar’ and evaluates federal programs concerning diplomacy, foreign aid, national defense and intelligence, business regulation, natural resources, education, and more.
February 2023
I was selected to receive the ‘23-‘24 Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship at the University of Michigan to support my dissertation on rootedness, migration, and transnational information politics in Honduras. Doctoral students, interested in applying? See my research statement and email me for tips.
I participated in the “Lady Frijoles” panel for Dr. William Lopez’s PUBPOL 633 Qualitative Methods class for Master students at the Ford School of Public Policy. Joined by Dr. Amelia Frank-Vitale and Dr. John Doering-White, we discussed sensory ethnography and shared advice on how to place anthropological observations within an “intelligible frame,” make the “strange familiar,” and apply qualitative data toward policymaking.
January 2023
I gave a guest talk at Dr. Michaelanne Thomas’ SI 430 Information Technology & Global Society class. In “What You Should Know About Migration, Weapons of ‘Math’ Destruction, and Digital Justice,” undergraduate students got a primer on research tracing immigrants’ tech experiences and ways of breaking cognitive barriers to social change by asking who participates in and is impacted by the tech design process.
Our paper “Online Harassment in Majority Contexts: Examining Harms and Remedies across Countries” was accepted to the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ‘23). Led by Dr. Sarita Schoenebeck, we show how online governance may benefit from transnational bodies of policymakers, NGOs, and academics to address abuse on social media, finding that no singular factor can predict perceptions of harm. Co-authors include Amna Batool, Giang Do, Gabriel Grill, Dr. Daricia Wilkinson, Dr. Mehtab Khan, Dr. Kentaro Toyama, and Louise Ashwell.
September 2022
Our paper “How Recent Migrants Develop Trust Through Community Commerce: The Emergence of Sociotechnical Adaptation” was accepted to the ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW ‘23). Dr. Joey Hsiao, Dr. Tawanna Dillahunt, and I share design suggestions to support immigrants’ trust in social media for local commerce and reflections on how adaptation experiences vary across diverse immigrant populations.
See more updates.
Contact me
Ponte en contacto conmigoEmail is the best way to contact me. You can send your inquiries, comments, or objections to ssimioni [at] umich [dot] edu.
Or, you can connect with me on LinkedIn.