Nancy Salem
(she/her)
Hi!
I am a PhD Student at the Oxford Internet Institute. My research concerns the public perception and user experience of emerging technologies.
I ask, how do we come to know what we know of technologies?
I think about this through imaginaries and materialities.
The Future looks digital
My PhD research examines imaginaries of speculative digital futures made legible and perceivable through the material, public infrastructures of art and culture spaces.
Through ethnographic methods, I consider what is being accomplished when museum visitors step into an immersive exhibit to drive an autonomous vehicle, consider genomic medicine, and try lab-grown food.
CURRENT Projects
Care, Autonomy, and Technology
I conduct qualitative research on an interdisciplinary project at the Institute of Ethics in AI focusing on trends around the use of parental mediation technology in childhood.
Gendered UX Design
As a AI and Work fellow, I led a project using UXR methods to explore the safety strategies of gender minorities in gig work, using speculative design methods to examine platform affordances.
AI Futures and the Curated Visitor Experience
As part of a Minderoo-Oxford Challenge project I contribute to research focused on the narratives and spaces used to frame AI futures, AI’s agency in the creative process, and the embodied experiences of AI generated art.
Selected Publications
Forthcoming
Salem, N., & Eccles, K.Feeling Uncertain: Immersion and Interactivity in Future-Facing Exhibits in Cultivating Futures Thinking in Museums. Ed. Kristin Alford. Taylor and Francis.
2023
Salem, N., & Chabikwa, R. (2023). Why adopting a feminist approach to tech governance can help ensure a healthy internet and trustworthy AI. Oxford Internet Institute.
2022
McGrath, M., Salem, N., and Boxall, L. Making AI: Advancing creative approaches to the design of AI systems through the craft of making them. ACM Creativity and Cognition
2021
Howson, K., Ferrari, F., Spilda, F.U., Salem, N., Johnston, H., Katta, S., Heeks, R., and Graham, M. Driving the Digital Value Network: Reshaping economic geographies of platform capitalism Global Networks
2019
Rizk, Nagla, Stefanie Felsberger, and Salem, N. Narratives around Women, Work, and Technology in Taking Stock: Data and Evidence on Gender Equality in Digital Access, Skills and Leadership
United Nations EQUALS Global Partnership
2018
Rizk, N., Salem, N., Weheba, N. A Gendered Analysis of Ridesharing: Perspectives from Cairo, Egypt CIPPEC and IDRC
2016
Wiens, K., and Salem, N. Africa and the Middle East Open Policy Report, Creative Commons
Selected TALKS
2024
Thinking about the Senses in Ethnographic Fieldwork World Conference on Qualitative Research
2023
The Case for Feminist Tech Governance Mozilla Foundation MozFest Kenya
Visual Studies Research Escalator on Sensory Methodologies ICA 2023
New Anthropological Critiques of Risk AND Representing the Future with Multisensory Data ASA 2023
2022
Workshop leader: Creative approaches to the design of AI systems
ACM Creativity and Cognition 2022
2021
Whose data is it anyway? Challenges and opportunities for gender inclusive digital rights in Africa RightsCon
2018
Feminist Open Science Workshop (OCSDNet), University of Toronto.
2017
The Digital Economy: A Regional Perspective MidEast DNS Forum, ISOC/ICANN
2016
Data as Things: Dis/Assembling the Stuff of Data and Data’s Coming to Matter London Conference on Critical Thought