Research

Internationally recognized human-computer interaction expert joins IST faculty

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — An internationally recognized scholar in feminism and human-computer interaction (HCI), critical and humanistic computing, and design research has joined the College of Information Sciences and Technology faculty, strengthening the college’s expertise and research focus in the area of HCI.

Shaowen Bardzell Credit: Jeffrey BardzellAll Rights Reserved.

Shaowen Bardzell, professor of information sciences and technology, comes to Penn State this fall from Indiana University – Bloomington, where she helped build the Human Computer Interaction Design program over the last 10 years. She was an affiliated faculty of the Kinsey Institute, gender studies, comparative literature, and sustainable food systems science as well as a faculty fellow with the Rob Kling Center for Social Informatics. Bardzell directed the interdisciplinary Center for Critical and Humanistic Computing.

She is co-author of “Humanistic HCI” (Morgan & Claypool Publishers, 2015) and co-editor of “Critical Theory and Interaction Design” (MIT Press, 2018), and has been honored with 14 best paper and best paper honorable mention awards at SIGCHI conferences and iConference since 2010. Her work is supported by the National Science Foundation, Intel Corporation and Mellon Foundation, among others. She has served as principal investigator or co-principal investigator on more than $13 million in external grant awards to date.

At Penn State, Bardzell will continue to advance information science and technology research informed by humanistic and design thinking perspectives. Ongoing research projects include care ethics perspectives on women’s health informatics, computational and sustainable food systems, and smart cities. Advances in interactive data products and artificial intelligence are driving changes in all three domains, and Bardzell’s research pursues interventions that democratize and empower all stakeholders of changes such as these.  

“I look forward to pursuing the goal of a more just and equitable information society, in building on the college’s strong history of innovative research,” said Bardzell, continuing, “in particular, I am excited to help expand the college’s use of humanistic methods and perspectives in conjunction with its existing strengths in computer science, data science, AI, cybersecurity, human-computer interaction, and social informatics.”

Bardzell has held many leadership positions in the information sciences and technology communities. Since July of 2019, she has served as vice president on the executive committee of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (ACM SIGCHI) – the world’s largest association of professionals who work in the research and practice of computer-human interaction. In that role she has led initiatives to advance access to computing for marginalized populations. She also chairs SIGCHI CARES, a resource for those who experience discrimination and/or harassment in violation of ACM’s policies governing SIG activities.

“As a leader in her field, Dr. Bardzell has made significant contributions to human-computer interaction by leveraging her background in the social sciences and humanities,” said Andrew Sears, dean of the College of IST. “Her work is highly regarded by the international research community, as demonstrated through her numerous honors and accolades. We are delighted to add Dr. Bardzell’s expertise and background to IST’s research portfolio as we continue to strengthen our presence and impact in the field of HCI and computing research in general.”

Bardzell has a successful record of teaching HCI and interaction design at the graduate and undergraduate levels, as well as supervising doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers. She has designed and taught classes in qualitative research methods, prototyping, participatory design, Computer-Supportive Cooperative Work (CSCW) and experience design at Indiana University. In 2010, she received the Women in Computing Graduate Faculty of the Year Award in recognition of exceptional commitment and dedication to female students and was nominated for the Inspirational Teacher award in 2011 and 2013. In 2014, she was awarded a campus-wide Trustees Teaching Award at Indiana University.   

She earned a bachelor’s degree in foreign languages and literatures from Tunghai University in Taiwan, and both master’s and doctoral degrees in comparative literature from Indiana University – Bloomington.

Last Updated September 4, 2020