Updates continued

Actualizaciones continuadas

July 25-August 2, 2022: I presented ongoing research on data practices about migration in Honduras, joining the latest cohort of early career migration scholars at the Summer Institute for Migration Research Methods, hosted by the Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative. The institute bridged forced and climate migration themes with big data and social networking approaches.

March 15, 2022: My latest paper “Coyotes, Caravans, and Connectivity: Digital Practices among Honduran Irregular Migrants” was accepted at the ACM International Conference on Information Communication Technologies for Development (ICTD ‘22). See my talk and read some Q&As about ethical tensions relevant to this work.

Based on migrants’ perceptions of phone-related monitoring and concerns of deportation and extortion, Dr. Kentaro Toyama and I contribute recommendations for clarifying suspicions over state and drug cartel surveillance and attending to a broader digital ecology to support migrants’ safety Bonus: See “10 Things You Should Know About Tech and Honduran Migration,” a Spanish-language white paper and slide deck presented to Honduran community partners on tips for improved migrant support.

December 15, 2022: I designed a syllabus for #ImAlreadyHome: Community-Centered Approaches to Digital Tech among Immigrants in the U.S. With support from the Engaged Pedagogy Initiative at Rackham, this civic engagement course prepares students to discern linkages between large-scale digital justice issues and lived experiences among immigrant communities. Interested in adapting it for your classroom? Happy to share materials upon request.

September 2021-May 2023: With support from the Fulbright U.S. Student Research Award and the Tinker Field Foundation Grant, I am conducting dissertation research in Honduras on migration and technologies of resistance.  

August 27, 2021: I changed my last name and publishing identity. Please be patient while I jump through the hoops of a legal name change. Call me Sylvia Darling. 😊

June 7-11, 2021: I co-organized the 2021 Cornell University Summer School on Designing Technology for Social Impact, along with Dr. Phoebe Sengers, Dr. Nicola Dell, and Dr. Kaiton Williams. The program offered PhD students career-building opportunities for producing transformative, emancipatory research. We were very proud to represent students working on data under conditions of collapse, subaltern media, culture and identity in computing, and more.

July 2020-present: I’m collaborating with Dr. Michaelanne Thomas on a project that explores the sociotechnical dimensions of “resolver”— a cultural phrase roughly translated as ‘to adapt’ — among Cubans in Havana. We’re trying to understand how sociotechnical innovations are borne from prolonged crises.

March 5-6, 2020: I presented at the University of Michigan-Universidad de Puerto Rico Collaborative Symposium on the UPR Rio Piedras campus in San Juan, Puerto Rico. UM-UPR develops research curricula for secondary school classrooms. Teachers, need a high school-level lesson plan on migration, citizenship, and human rights? Check this lesson plan adapted from my research on Honduran migration during the Trump era.

November 2019: I gave a guest lecture at Berea College upon the invitation of Dr. Jasmine Jones on researching digital tools for social impact.

May 21-August 6, 2019: I conducted preliminary fieldwork in the Departments of Copán, Cortés, and Francisco Morazán in Honduras. This summer marked a preliminary step towards understanding how Hondurans who clandestinely cross the border use technnology to facilitate their journey.

May 4-9, 2019: I co-presented a Best Paper in Glasgow, Scotland with Dr. Tawanna Dillahunt at the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ‘19).“Online Grocery Delivery Services: An Opportunity to Address Food Disparities in Transportation-scarce Areas” contributes implications for culturally responsive design toward healthful purchases among resource-constrained communities.