EAGER: Broadening Participation in Computing through Transforming Media and Technologies

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This project investigates computational projects where participating members transform media by producing new creative works that draw material and inspiration from another source - often in order to critique and correct the exclusion of certain types of characters or narratives from the underlying media and to amplify underrepresented voices. Computational projects expand this practice into the transformation of technologies, which subsequently provides a path for broadening participation in computing, since these communities have a large percentage of participation from groups that are traditionally underrepresented in computing, such as women and people with disabilities. Broadening participation is essential for ensuring that a diversity of perspectives are involved in creating new technologies, and despite initiatives aimed at bringing more diverse groups into computer science, certain groups are still under-involved in formal computing spaces such as education programs and the broader technology industry. In contrast to work that seeks to bring underrepresented groups into these formal spaces, this research will examine computational work already happening within communities that both experience marginalization and where participants who may be outsiders to traditional computing culture are engaging with computation in order to empower their own communities. By studying this work, this research can lead to a better understanding of how to overcome systemic barriers that marginalized and underrepresented groups face when entering formal computing spaces. The research will take place across multiple case studies of computational projects, in order to explore how they innovate and transform technologies, with an emphasis on their involvement in projects by and for marginalized communities. These case studies will involve interviews, participant observation, and ethnography around the ongoing creation of new content and platforms, including those that address privacy, safety, accessibility, and other concerns specific to marginalized groups that are overlooked on other platforms. This work stands to inform perspectives on barriers to broadening participation in computing and how computing can empower marginalized communities. The result will be a better understanding of how those who are traditionally crowded out of computing are motivated to get involved in computational projects - and how we might encourage and support them. This research will provide insight into not only how computational projects driven by underrepresented groups function and what their benefits are to marginalized communities, but also what motivating factors make this kind of work possible when efforts to broaden participation in computing often fall short.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.