Hey everyone! My name is Kathy Wu. I’m somewhat new in the world of design justice, and design activism. I’m excited and curious to learn from everyone here.

I graduated from RISD in 2015 with a background in Graphic Design/Literary Arts and I’m now working as a software designer. My skill specialty is visual design and interaction design; I’m also generally stoked about design futures. I have a little brother who goes to MIT and he is a big inspiration for me. We’re both passionate about education; together we make a very complementary STEAM pair.

These days I am looking to move my practice from one in a corporation setting to one in the community. For me, this means taking this studio class and maybe returning to school in the fall to learn more about media studies, research, ethnography. I’m especially passionate about education, pedagogy, and platforms for self-expression and learning. In my spare time, I’ve been volunteering at a kids’ science museum, which is fun.

One campaign that I’ve been following from my own school community is called Sad Asian Femmes. It was a class project by two graphic design seniors that is starting to have legs of its own! I admire their use of media to create a community and a platform that gives Asians in western spaces an artistic voice. https://www.instagram.com/sadasiangirls/

Hi, nice to meet you all! My name is Jackie, a junior in computer science at MIT. I went into MIT hoping to explore some intersection of art, design, and technology. Three years of being here is more than enough to help me understand that this intersection is actually extremely broad. Recently I’ve honed my academic focus to the realm of designing and implementing user interfaces, and some of my personal interests lie in reflecting on how the sometimes subtle visual and social cultures that are embedded into digital systems reflect or shape the lived experiences of humans. I’m also interested in art of a variety of media, and particularly enjoy art that involves combining tech with some sort of unexpected emotional rawness.

While not necessarily a direct social movement per-se, I find online art-collectives/ “aesthetic” groups a really interesting phenomena. Here is an example of one called “Cybertwee”: https://creators.vice.com/en_us/article/cybertwee-collective-internet-feminist-cyberpunk
It basically seeks to be a contrast to the dominant idea of what cyberpunk is (gritty and nihilistic), by proposing a cuter alternative. In addition to groups like this tending to be inclusive communities, I think embedded into these visual ideas is the idea of making technology more inclusive for people who don’t fall into masculine identities, and expanding the definition of what it looks like to engage with tech.

Hi all,

I’m Carolyn McKenzie. I work full-time in the AV department at Harvard and am taking classes toward an eventual graduate degree part-time. My background/bachelor’s degree is in studio art — specifically non-narrative film and new media, which means for me, broadly, video games and interactive digital media. In school, I made some tiny games and films which tell stories about navigating disability and queerness in the public school system. I’m interested in new modes of storytelling, specifically through interactive means, within and outside the realm of the digital.

It’s been a few years since I’ve been in school. Since then, I’ve taught some workshops and held some panel discussions here and there for kids and adults on animation and the importance of play and the absurd as a tool for social change. I’m interested in doing more of that — and doing a lot more collaborative work. I appreciate when social justice work and art are allowed to be playful and find access to folks who may feel shut out of those worlds because they lack the language or the very specific experiences which supposedly provide a ticket to entry.

I want to point to Code Liberation, who provide free and low-cost classes for women, girls, non-binary and femme-identifying people — and have kids teaching each other kids to code. I think they’re an important organization because although there are perhaps a lot of efforts being put forth to teach folks to code, CL seems to emphasize the social practice of teaching and empowering one another — and not just the skillset itself.

Hey guys,

I’m quite excited to work with all of you in this collaborative class, get to know you better, and read some of your “about me”s! My name is Dan Chen and I’m a senior in Course 9 (Brain and Cognitive Science) with a minor in 6-3 (Computer Science). I was born and raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia to two Chinese immigrants, and had a somewhat typical first/second generation Chinese American upbringing. My academic interests lie in the intersection of cognitive science theories about learning and information storage/access in the brain, machine learning and artificial general intelligence approaches, and their implications to society as a whole. In particular, I have a strong desire to apply data science and social psychology approaches to the political realm, possibly as a means of fostering more honest and deep communication between people of differing political ideologies or as a means of helping increase transparency and accountability in government. Outside of the classroom, I spend my time reading about current events and global affairs, cooking or drink-mixing, eating and/or drinking, and talking to friends about current events and global affairs. I also dance from time to time and was part of the original effort of starting Solidarity MIT, which seeks to be a liaison between various groups working in intersecting activist spaces.

As for youth movements that are particularly inspiring to me, I would look at the entire Arab Spring as a largely youth-led movement, which, while having limited success on long-term outcomes, was a solid confirmation of the idea that youth movements can literally topple governments and halt societies. Al Jazeera gives a good breakdown on the way s in which many of the young men and women involved in Arab Spring thought about their respective movements and their eventual outcomes. I am also awed and feel deep admiration for the various young men and women who literally put their bodies and lives on the line in these revolutions, many of whom lost their lives, in pursuit of a greater goal, and aspire to such selfless bravery.

Hi all!

My name is Nina, I’m 17 and am currently enrolled as a student at NuVu which is an innovative engineering program for middle and high school students. This year I am taking a gap year between junior and senior year of high school to go to NuVu. I decided to do that because NuVu is a really good fit for my interests. I’m interested in design, engineering, tech, and biology. I also intern at Planned Parenthood and teach sex Ed in middle and high schools around the Boston area. I’m also really into freestyle skiing and I compete in that in the winter and train throughout the year.

One example of youth advocacy that I find really inspiring is an organization called Camions of Care. Camions of Care is an organization that’s goal is to globally distribute menstrual products to people in need. They also work to destigmatize periods in general and celebrate menstrual hygiene and change the idea that periods are something to be ashamed of.

http://www.camionsofcare.org/

Hey all!

I’m Hairuo Guo, a senior in Course 6-3 (computer science) and Comparative Media Studies. My specific interests in these two fields were originally somewhat distinct – I’m involved in AI research for the former and have been focused on civic media/technology policy for the latter. What I find extremely exciting (and somewhat unsettling) is how rapidly those two areas are beginning to converge, forcing engineers and data scientists to confront problems ranging from those involving normative ethics (e.g., how should self-driving cars deal with the trolley problem?) to structural bias (e.g., with the spread of machine learning, how do we ensure that programs don’t learn to be prejudiced due to biased training data?). This semester I’ve been trying to become more involved with activist groups, something that a thoroughly enervating research project has prevented me from doing for the past couple years. I spend my spare time getting almost halfway through books, taking photographs, writing, having conversations with cats, and obsessing over my latest media artifact(s) of fascination (currently everything in the Buffyverse).

An example of youth activism that I find to be inspiring is the Harry Potter Alliance, a nonprofit organization driven by Harry Potter fans (many of whom are youth) that has tackled numerous issues ranging from mental health to LGBTQ+ rights to net neutrality. The effectiveness of HPA is amazing considering that it was founded on a fandom – I think that there are many lessons to be learned from how it has harnessed this (literal) collective interest and used it for civic engagement.

Hey y’all!

I’m Natalí, a current junior at Wellesley College. I am a cinema and media studies major with a concentration on production, so I really love movies and different forms of media! Homework keeps me pretty busy but outside of class I am heavily involved with Mezcla, Wellesley’s largest Latinx org, as Vice President. I also take violin lessons and like to play music in my free time. This is my first time taking a course at MIT and I am excited to get started and know everyone! I’m hoping this course will expose me to different forms of media that I am unfamiliar with and how to utilize them to make a positive change with everything going on around us.

As a queer Latina, I know how frustrating it can be to never find diverse representation of people like me in popular media. Mainstream storylines often feature predominantly white voices which can be discouraging for people of color who wish to identify with protagonists and see themselves on screen or on paper. One young activist that I find inspiring is Marley Dias who started the #1000BlackGirlBooks campaign. Marley was tired of reading books that featured “white boys and dogs” so she started the campaign as a way to collect the titles of books that featured young black girls such as herself. With the help of her mom and attention from local news, Marley’s campaign took off and currently has a collection of over 7,000 titles.

You can learn more about the campaign here: http://grassrootscommunityfoundation.org/1000-black-girl-books-resource-guide/

I’m Lorraine Wong, an MIT senior in Women’s & Gender Studies and Brain & Cognitive Sciences. On campus, I’m involved with a few mental health organizations including Active Minds @ MIT and the MindHandHeart Initiative. I care about a lot of topics related to shaping a more equitable and supportive society, so I also do work in the reproductive justice, mentorship for underrepresented and under-resourced youth, mental health hotline, and LGBTQ legal issues spaces. The WGS thesis I’m currently working on is about the changing language used in regards to nonbinary gender identities. 

Two years ago I took a class at the Harvard Kennedy School for Government called Philanthropy & Public Problem-Solving, in which groups researched local Greater Boston Area non-profits in their topic area in order to make donations to support the change we believed in and wished to see. While it didn’t fit exactly with our topic area of combating poverty, True Colors: Out Youth Theater has stuck with me over the years. Using the power of theater and art, True Colors’ program components encourage confidence, story-telling, leadership, and provide a safe and welcoming space for LGBTQ youth to be themselves and share their stories. Here are two articles about True Colors being awarded the 2016 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award by First Lady Michelle Obama this past November.

Hello All! My Name is Madeline and I am attending NuVu for the winter term. I am a Sophomore at Beaver Country Day School. At Nuvu I have done many projects such as creating my own virtual reality video and creating an interactive installation about the Refugee Crisis. Currently, I am working on a fashion and design project that is creating wearables for disabled people who are in an exhibit in New York. I am apart for many things at Beaver such as Field Hockey, Softball, Model UN, and Girls Who Code. I am very excited for this course because as a younger person in this world, I feel like my opinions are often overlooked and can not be heard. I am hope to learn more about civic media and how to become a stronger activist.

A person that inspires me is Azure Antoinette. Azure is a poet, writer, and performer. I first discovered her when I watched one of her Ted Talks in history class. She talked about a broad range of topic from  what you love to finding happiness in you life. The things she talked about were very inspirational and they are important topics to touch upon.

http://azureantoinette.com/