Maya Mundell
I'm a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Information Science at Cornell University and Cornell Tech. As a critical, qualitative researcher working at the intersection of tech entrepreneurship, platform studies, and the impact of computing technologies, I explore individual, institutional, and philanthropic approaches to fostering tech entrepreneurialism within marginalized communities, noting their lack of representation in global startup culture. My work informs and supports the development of tech-enabled, entrepreneurial infrastructures and ecosystems that facilitate restorative economic justice for structurally exploited populations. Centering marginal perspectives is integral in my goal to expand and reconfigure notions of what it means to be a tech entrepreneur and technological innovator.
My longer-term goal is to foster the development of platforms and tech entrepreneurship ecosystems whose properties and forms of governance make it possible for marginalized groups to collectively establish institutional power that may otherwise not be available to them.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the United States Department of State have graciously supported my scholarship.
YOU CAN LEARN A LITTLE ABOUT MY WORK HERE...
2024 "Fostering Tech Entrepreneurialism & Entrepreneurial Infrastructure Among Marginalized Communities"
2024 “Individual, Institutional, & Philanthropic Approaches to Fostering Tech Entrepreneurialism & Entrepreneurial Infrastructure in Marginalized Communities"
2023 “Bodies, Genders, Pleasures And SexTech: Research And Design With/For Communities"
Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) Conference, Roundtable Session
2022 “Tech Entrepreneurialism As a Tool for Addressing the Needs of NYC’s Vulnerable Populations & Fostering Positive Social Impact”
Fellowship Report - Public Interest Technology @ Cornell Tech
2022 “Tech Entrepreneurialism for Marginalized Communities & Feminine Approaches to Technology"
Cornell Tech, Guest Lecture for course INFO 5910 Revolutionary Technologies
2022 “Impact & Implications of your Technology & Tech Venture"
Blue Ridge Labs @ The Robin Hood Foundation, Guest Lecture for the Blue Ridge Labs Fellowship Program
2021 “Subverting Systems of Oppression: Digital Influence, Tech Entrepreneurship, & Digital Sex Work”
CHI Conference for Human Factors in Computing Systems 2021- Decolonizing HCI Across Borders Workshop
2020 “Understanding Strategies of Digital Influence For Marginalized Communities”
Computing Research Association's URMD Grad Cohort Workshop in Austin Texas
Mundell, M. 2014. Constructions of Blackness in Regions of the Arab World: Reflections on Jordan and an Ethnography in Oman. The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Journal 2014: 114-17