Research Statement
I am a qualitative researcher working at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction, Science and Technology Studies, and Craft Studies, and a PhD candidate in S&TS at Cornell University. I also serve as Assistant Director for AI and Learning at Cornell’s Center for Teaching Innovation, where I bring this research into conversation with teaching and learning.
I explore sites where new computational processes reconfigure work, particularly work that is collaborative, embodied, and sensorially informed. I am interested in how human sensing, tacit knowledge, and computational systems intermingle in situated practice, and in how that knowledge is learned and shared. I have found craft-based work (e.g., robotic tools being taken up in operating rooms, robots in fine art furniture production at the Wendell Castle studio, and computational acoustics entering violin making) to be rich locations for learning.
Teaching and learning, much like furniture building, surgical practice, and violinmaking, can be explored through the lens of craft. As AI reconfigures fundamental skills like reading, writing, and making, I work alongside students, teachers, and policymakers to identify where handwork is best situated for both learning and teaching as humans and computers meet. Through this work I advocate for—and sometimes build—more transparent, responsive, and compassionate digital tools.
Projects
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How has the violin world been made durable?
Talks·Mondo Acoustica, Cremona 2025·UC Berkeley 2026·4S Toronto 2026
And, how does it react and respond to new computational processes and sensing technologies?
This project examines the violin as a boundary object that traverses artistic and scientific domains, exploring how traditional craft knowledge intersects with digital measurement and modeling tools to create new sonic knowledge about the violin. I investigate how the materiality of instruments, embodied practices of musicians, and computational analysis co-constitute a shared sonic world. Ongoing project.
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How can large language models encompass more situated, embodied, and tacit ways of knowing?
Funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, 2024–2025
This collaborative project with Bernie Boscoe and Chandler Campbell from SOU explores how science labs can make use of a RAG LLM to help make their work more durable, actionable, shareable, and discoverable.
What kinds of knowledge and sensory modalities are currently incorporated into large language models, and what are excluded? Aquillm is a place-based AI "archive" that aims to find out. Of particular interest is how sonic data from the field or from the lab helps us make sense of our research world.
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What can craft movements teach us about human-centered computing?
ACM CSCW 2023
A historical analysis of craft traditions reveals three enduring principles that can inform more responsive technological design: sensitivity to materials and ecological contexts; integration of cognitive, emotional, and physical dimensions of making; and embodied, collaborative learning environments.
Read paper (opens PDF in new window)·ACM Digital Library (opens in new window)
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How do surgical teams adapt to robot-mediated sensing?
ACM CSCW 2019·Best Paper Award
I examine how robotic mediation transforms the sensory environment of surgery and necessitates new collaborative practices.
I show how surgical teams develop sophisticated compensatory techniques and sensory articulations to overcome the limitations of technologically mediated sensing. These adaptations create a distributed, more-than-human sensorium that extends beyond individual bodies to encompass the entire surgical team and technological system.
Read paper (opens PDF in new window)·ACM Digital Library (opens in new window)
Companion paper: Operating at a Distance (CSCW 2018) (opens in new window)
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How do digital tools transform craft and design practices in fine art furniture making?
ACM CSCW 2015·Honorable Mention Award
At Wendell Castle studios I investigate the complex integration of digital fabrication technologies into established craft practice.
I show how this hybrid environment creates new forms of creative expression, reshapes material relationships, and transforms collaborative workflows. Rather than diminishing craft knowledge, I found that new digital tools become entangled with embodied expertise, creating distinctive socio-technical arrangements where digital and physical processes mutually inform each other.
Read paper (opens PDF in new window)·ACM Digital Library (opens in new window)
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How can urban permaculture inspire stories about plant-people relations?
Book chapter, “Greening Our Thumbs,” in Narrating the Multispecies World, transcript, 2025
This passion project explores the transformation of a small urban backyard (opens in new window) into an experimental permaculture system that acts as a place to develop new ways of sensing with plants.
The garden is a research site, philosophical and aesthetic space, and material investigation into plant-people relations. This collaborative project with Lissette Lorenz and Martin Abbott unfolded as a community ’zine, conference talk, and book chapter exploring the creative ways we might understand and narrate the multispecies world.
Read zine (opens in new window)·Read chapter (opens in new window)
