GeDIS Team Wins Grant from Hessian Ministry for Science and the Arts to Research Intersections between Feminism and Computing

The research grant was awarded within the Ministry’s research focus on “Dimensions of the Category of Gender – Women – and Gender Research in Hesse” (“Dimensionen der Kategorie Geschlecht - Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung in Hessen”).

CF+ project aims at revisiting the dominant modes and practices of knowledge and artefact production in computer science through cyberfeminist and feminist new materialist lenses, and to produce innovative theoretical and methodological approaches in computing based on this revision. Namely, it asks: what are the underlying conceptual notions in computer science and how do they (re)produce power dynamics? How are computer science theories gendered? How can insights from feminist new materialist and cyberfeminist perspectives help re-contextualize the methodologies and theories that are commonplace in computing?

During this stage of research, the team will consolidate a network of local scholars and practitioners working at the intersection of feminist theory and computing. At least four research lab meetings with guest lecturers and local researchers will be organised in the period of nine months. Additionally, a white paper will be produced on further directions of research. The team hopes that this will kick-start a wider research project on feminism and computing that will lead not only to theoretical but also methodological interventions towards building a more socially responsible technology.