Lisa Nathan

 
Prospective Graduate Students / Postdocs

This faculty member is currently not actively recruiting graduate students or Postdoctoral Fellows, but might consider co-supervision together with another faculty member.

Associate Professor

Research Interests

climate change adaptation
Indigenous Information Studies
Information Ethics & Policy

Relevant Thesis-Based Degree Programs

Affiliations to Research Centres, Institutes & Clusters

Research Options

I am available and interested in collaborations (e.g. clusters, grants).
I am interested in and conduct interdisciplinary research.
I am interested in working with undergraduate students on research projects.
 
 

Research Methodology

Community Grounded Research
participatory design
Ethnography

Great Supervisor Week Mentions

Each year graduate students are encouraged to give kudos to their supervisors through social media and our website as part of #GreatSupervisorWeek. Below are students who mentioned this supervisor since the initiative was started in 2017.

 

I am so fortunate to have a pair of supportive and caring supervisors. @NJLachowsky and @ethicalquandary. They do an amazing job of pushing me to be more reflective and engaged with what it means to engage with community #greatsupervisor #ubc

 

Graduate Student Supervision

Doctoral Student Supervision

Dissertations completed in 2010 or later are listed below. Please note that there is a 6-12 month delay to add the latest dissertations.

Fixing for change: information practice and stories of aspiration in community-based repair initiatives (2024)

For over a decade, sharing platforms such as YouTube have offered do-it-yourself repair guidance 24/7 to households across North America. Yet, in-person repair events, where people physically meet up to repair together, were growing in numbers and popularity before the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether called Fixit Clinics or Repair Cafés, people gathered to repair artefacts (e.g., digital electronics, household appliances, clothing), assisted by volunteers with skills, tools, and expertise in different kinds of repair. In January 2020, I embarked on a dissertation project to explore why people in Metro Vancouver were dedicating their time and energy to help others repair items in person, including things that could be easily replaced via online shopping. My carefully planned research activities were soon upended by ever-shifting pandemic protocols, including lockdowns that also prevented repair cafés from operating. All of this led to a period of profound uncertainty for local repair organisations and required me to reimagine my research project. However, through my interviews with 13 repair café volunteers and organisers in Metro Vancouver, the disruption of the pandemic became an opening point to learn about what motivated participants to dedicate their time to repairing others’ broken objects and to consider the work of repair more broadly. Weaving together practice theory, narrative methods, and humanistic approaches, my dissertation explores questions with and of information practice, aspiration, and story to consider the possibilities, connections, and limitations of these concepts for understanding the potentialities of “repair”. By creating space to position participants’ lived experiences in conversation with scholars’ theorizing, my project reveals ways that involvement in repair activities offers more than opportunities to fix broken material objects. The work articulates and honours the diversity and different motivations of people coming together to work on repair, and illustrates the wide-ranging forms of labour, knowledge, and skills that go into making repair events “work”. I present implications for repair practitioners and advocates, librarians and information professionals, and policy makers to engage in locally relevant ways with systemic conditions that also need “fixing”, including civic engagement, growth-based economics, community resilience, and climate crisis.

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Caring for newcomer communities and their data : an inquiry into interdependence in information practices (2023)

Nation states increasingly manage peoples’ movements across borders using data analytics, automated systems, and algorithmic technologies. Once individuals begin living in a new country, governments continue to collect, analyze, and share data about their immigration and settlement process. In Canada, newcomers are often asked for data about their personal experiences and identity in order to receive access to services from community-based organizations and government agencies. Experimental uses of data can have harmful effects because of mistakes, misrepresentations, and misunderstandings which can jeopardize fundamental human rights and international responsibilities to care for migrants. Informed by previous work on the harms of datafication, this inquiry focuses on questions of care. In particular, what are current information practices and alternative visions of how newcomers’ data should be cared for ethically? The research reported here aims to learn from a diversity of groups’ ethical perspectives and experiences of stewarding immigration data as they seek to respect newcomers’ capabilities and wellbeing.Methods involved 14 semi-structured interviews with individuals in groups supporting immigration and settlement, for which conversations were hosted over 10 months during the COVID-19 pandemic. Interviewees include settlement service providers, migrant justice activists, immigration researchers, government staff, and designers of digital systems and services oriented towards newcomers. The dissertation examines participants’ stories of “data care” and recurring themes which characterize their labour. Interviewees provide accounts of conflict, confusion, compromise, and, at times, coordination with their peers in similar and different groups. Groups linked by their labour with data are therefore understood as interdependent, because their information practices influence one another and newcomers. Findings can be employed by governmental and non-governmental actors to identify links and tensions in their labour with newcomer communities’ data. Contributions offer points of discussion and decision making for organizing the stewardship of communities’ data in support of activities such as advocacy for migrant justice, immigration research, policymaking, service provision, and the design of information technologies. The inquiry conceptualizes groups supporting newcomers as part of an interconnected web, who by understanding one another’s ethical perspectives and practices may coordinate and strengthen their acts of care.

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Social media in the Canadian government: an exploratory study of emerging practice (2019)

Records held in national and institutional archives can serve as instruments of accountability and transparency for government actions (or inaction) and aid in constructing social memory. As digital technologies advance, records that were traditionally analogue are increasingly generated within networked digital platforms. In efforts contribute to archival and records theory on social media and accountability, this dissertation investigates emergent practices in the Government of Canada’s (GC) early use of social media, (2013–2014), when agencies and public servants were in the nascent stages of adoption. This study undertakes a qualitative examination of two main areas of the GC’s social media use: social media and recordkeeping practices and their implications for records generation and retention, and policy instruments and frameworks regarding the role of information management and recordkeeping in its social media use and outputs. Empirical data gathered included 28 interview participants, 34 legislative and policy instruments, online and offline observations, and 35 documentary sources, which were analyzed using a practice lens—introducing the utility of a practice lens for archival research. The main objectives of the study were to gain an understanding of the relationships between social media practices, policy, and information management and recordkeeping practices in the GC during an early phase of social media adoption and to contribute to the archival and records theory discourse surrounding shifting social media and recordkeeping practices and the implications for records as instruments of accountability.Findings suggest that emerging social media practices at that time put a strain on existing government frameworks, particularly with regard to retaining, collecting, and preserving its own records and records under its collections mandate. Despite implementing social media, findings also indicate that GC social media adoption and use operated in a bureaucratic environment that struggled to effectively adopt the ethos of these platforms (e.g. horizontal collaborations, ease of information access, etc.). The research surfaced constraints in policy development: policies intended to support increased collaboration were challenged by a hierarchical decision-making model. Moving forward, this research suggests an agile approach to policy development and an exploration of global treaty approaches in exploration of social media platform governance models.

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Publications

  • Children in the cloud: Literacy groupware and the practice of reading (2017)
    First Monday, 22 (2)
  • Disruptions, Dilemmas and Paradoxes: Ethical Matter(s) in Design Research (2016)
    Interacting with Computers, 29 (1), 1--9
  • Enriching visions of sustainability through informal public pedagogies (2016)
    interactions, 23 (5), 54--57
  • Collections Of Trauma: Exploring Generative Frictions (2015)
    iConference 2015 Proceedings,
  • Designing for Discomfort (2015)
    Proceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing - CSCW '15,
  • Expanding the Boundaries (2015)
    Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI EA '15,
  • ICT for Sustainability--Current and future research directions (2015)
    iConference 2015 Proceedings,
  • Multi-Lifespan Information System Design (2015)
    Aarhus Series on Human Centered Computing, 1 (1), 4
  • Neighbourhood book exchanges: localising information practices (2015)
    Information Research-an International Electronic Journal, 20 (3)
  • Stewarding Collections of Trauma: Plurality, Responsibility, and Questions of Action (2015)
    Archivaria, 80
  • Value Sensitive Design: Applications, Adaptations, and Critiques (2015)
    Handbook of Ethics, Values, and Technological Design, , 11--40
  • Values as Generative Forces in Design (2015)
    iConference 2015 Proceedings,
  • Values as Hypotheses: Design, Inquiry, and the Service of Values (2015)
    Design Issues, 31 (4), 91--104
  • Co-creating \& identity-making in CSCW: revisiting ethics in design research (2014)
    Proceedings of the companion publication of the 17th ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work \& social computing, , 305--308
  • Co-creating & identity-making in CSCW: revisiting ethics in design research (2014)
    Proceedings of the companion publication of the 17th ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work & social computing, , 305--308
  • Colonization, Information Systems \& Sustainability: A Design-Based Inquiry (2014)
    Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Canadian Association for Information Science,
  • Colonization, Information Systems & Sustainability: A Design-Based Inquiry (2014)
    Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Canadian Association for Information Science,
  • Designing for negative affect and critical reflection (2014)
    Proceedings of the extended abstracts of the 32nd annual ACM conference on Human factors in computing systems - CHI EA '14,
  • Entertained but Misinformed? Play and Prevarication in Alternate Reality Games (2014)
    Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Canadian Association for Information Science,
  • Filming the Instructional Story: Reflections on Designing Video-Enhanced LIS Pedagogy (2014)
    Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Canadian Association for Information Science,
  • Honoring protocol (2014)
    Proceedings of the 2014 companion publication on Designing interactive systems - DIS Companion '14,
  • If not us, who? Social media policy and the iSchool classroom (2014)
    Journal of Education for Library and Information Science,
  • Next steps for sustainable HCI (2014)
    interactions, 21 (5), 66--69
  • What have we learned?: a SIGCHI HCI \& sustainability community workshop (2014)
    CHI'14 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, , 143--146
  • What have we learned?: a SIGCHI HCI & sustainability community workshop (2014)
    CHI'14 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, , 143--146
  • Changing perspectives on sustainability (2013)
    CHI '13 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems on - CHI EA '13,
  • CHI at the barricades: an activist agenda? (2013)
    CHI'13 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, , 2407--2412
  • Envisioning across generations: a multi-lifespan information system for international justice in rwanda (2013)
    Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, , 2527--2536
  • HCI for peace ideathon (2013)
    CHI '13 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems on - CHI EA '13,
  • Human Computation and Conflict (2013)
    Handbook of Human Computation, , 993--1009
  • Plan| play| pressure| pause. Engaging creative information practices (2013)
  • POST-SUSTAINABILITY (2013)
    CHI '13 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems on - CHI EA '13,
  • The Neighborhood Book Exchange: Community Catalyst or Media Hype? (2013)
    iSchool Conference,
  • Cultivating Creative Information Practices: Supporting the Ying and Yang of the Research Process (2012)
  • Ecovillages: Information Tools and Deeply Sustainable Living (2012)
    Ecopsychology: Science, Totems, and the Technological Species, , 173--194
  • HCI for peace (2012)
    interactions, 19 (5), 40
  • HCI for peace: preventing, de-escalating and recovering from conflict (2012)
    CHI'12 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, , 2703--2706
  • Heritage, Records \& Trust: Understanding societyʼs past through social media? (2012)
  • Heritage, Records & Trust: Understanding societyʼs past through social media? (2012)
  • Meta-making (2012)
    interactions, 19 (4), 54
  • Occupy CHI! (2012)
    Proceedings of the 2012 ACM annual conference extended abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts - CHI EA '12,
  • Revolutionaries will not be friended (2012)
    Proceedings of the 2012 iConference on - iConference '12,
  • Simple, sustainable living (2012)
    Proceedings of the 2012 ACM annual conference extended abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts - CHI EA '12,
  • Social sustainability: an HCI agenda (2012)
    CHI'12 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, , 1151--1154
  • Sustainable information practice: An ethnographic investigation (2012)
    J Am Soc Inf Sci Tec, 63 (11), 2254--2268
  • Envisioning Cards (2011)
    University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA,
  • Multi-lifespan information system design: Investigating a new design approach in Rwanda (2011)
    Proceedings of the 2011 iConference, , 591--597
  • Broadening horizons through information technology (2010)
    interactions, 17 (6), 24
  • Examining appropriation, re-use, and maintenance for sustainability (2010)
    CHI'10 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, , 4457--4460
  • Interacting with public policyInteracting with policy in a political world (2010)
    interactions, 17 (5), 56
  • Multi-lifespan information system design in post-conflict societies: An evolving project in Rwanda (2010)
    CHI'10 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, , 2833--2842
  • Multi-lifespan Information System Design in the Aftermath of Genocide: An Early-Stage Report from Rwanda (2010)
  • Multi-lifespan information system design: a research initiative for the hci community (2010)
    Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, , 2243--2246
  • Who's Watching Your Kids? Safety and Surveillance in Virtual Worlds for Children. (2010)
    Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 3 (2)
  • Children, technology and social values: Enabling children's voices in a pluralistic world (2009)
    Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 46 (1), 1--9
  • Defining the role of HCI in the challenges of sustainability (2009)
    Proceedings of the 27th international conference extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems - CHI EA '09,
  • Ecovillages, sustainability, and information tools: An ethnography of values, adaptation, and tension (2009)
  • Institutional Review boards: Ethics, regulations and the research agenda (2009)
    Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 46 (1), 1--6
  • SUSTAINABLY OURS: Information system design as catalyst (2009)
    interactions, 16 (4), 6
  • Beyond the hype (2008)
    Proceeding of the twenty-sixth annual CHI conference extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems - CHI '08,
  • Beyond the qualitative/quantitative split: alternate forms of research in the information space (2008)
  • Ecovillages and information technology: Negotiating sustainability (2008)
    Proc. Am. Soc. Info. Sci. Tech., 45 (1), 1--3
  • Ecovillages, values, and interactive technology (2008)
    Proceeding of the twenty-sixth annual CHI conference extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems - CHI '08,
  • Envisioning systemic effects on persons and society throughout interactive system design (2008)
    Proceedings of the 7th ACM conference on Designing interactive systems - DIS '08,
  • Teacher-librarian communities: Changing practices in changing schools (2008)
    Communities of Practice: Creating Learning Environments for Educators, , 199--222
  • Barriers to information seeking in school libraries: conflicts in perceptions and practice. (2007)
    Information Research, 12 (2)
  • Value scenarios (2007)
    CHI '07 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems - CHI '07,
  • The discourses of appropriation: What can we learn from laggards? (2005)
    Proc. Am. Soc. Info. Sci. Tech., 42 (1), n/a--n/a
 
 

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