Why a Citational Justice Workshop?
Citations are nodes in the networks of knowledge we create, portals to conversations with the past and material that bonds with scholarship in the present. Choosing who we cite is a practice signaling who we recognize and respect as a knowledge source. Citations are, thus, a relational practice and their relations are mediated by wealth we distribute across those who we cite.
This one-day workshop engages with Citational Justice. Building on increased discussion of citational practices within HCI, it deeply reflects on how we cite and the practices and infrastructures surrounding citations. The workshop seeks to create an inclusive language to collectively reflect on and interrogate our citational practices and their consequences; concrete ways to make our practices just in research and involvement in our communities; and, to imagine approaches, and adapt systems and infrastructures to make them feasible.
We will bring together a diverse group of researchers, designers and practitioners from varied disciplines, sectors, knowledge practices and socio-cultural and geographical contexts, who are interested in examining their citational practices and the systems surrounding them.
We will collectively reflect on our citational practices while attempting to address critical questions: Why do we cite in the ways we cite? Where do we look for knowledge? Can citing more broadly and fairly be a concept for holding someone accountable for their unjust practices? Can citing practice be a lens to examine the impacts of the demeaning dominant academic culture? Could changed citational practice be a way for people to enact justice-making, even if they cannot or do not wish to engage further with epistemic justice or decoloniality?
Build a shared language around citational justice and establish a common ground to share perspectives and experiences regarding the dynamics involved in citing.
Identify the most pressing issues for the citational justice community.
Envision new citation systems and tools for finding work from scholars and other knowers beyond the mainstream.
Promote research and reflection on the distribution of citations in HCI and CSCW, how researchers cite, and the impacts of citational justice.
Share resources to advance research and work towards citational justice.
We invite anyone interested in issues of epistemic justice, knowledge production, and decoloniality, or who simply wishes to enact small changes in their practice towards justice, to participate. To join in, we ask participants to submit a contribution associated with the workshop goals by October 10th, 11.59 pm, Anywhere on Earth (AoE).
The content of contributions can offer, for instance, reflections about the harms of injustice in knowledge production; examples of successful citational practices; or a speculative take on new citational formats and systems. You may submit a position statement, reflection, insight or experience that relates to the workshop themes. For instance, you might comment on your observations about citational exclusion or a positive experience of inclusion; you might visualise your vision of what citational justice would look like.
The format of a contribution can be one of any of the following:
A written paper or personal statement of 300 to 1200 words in length
A 250-word commentary on a past publication/writing
A pictorial, equivalent to A2 paper size
A video of no longer than 5-minutes in duration
In case of any questions, please feel free to email us at: trailofcj@gmail.com
The organisers will review submissions to ensure both diverse and relevant perspectives are represented in the workshop. To enable meaningful participation, the workshop is limited to 25 participants.
Accepted contributors are required to register for the conference and workshop in order to attend by October 24th: https://cscw.acm.org/2021/registration/
Submission deadline: October 10th, 2021 at 23:59, AoE
Notification of acceptance: October 17th, 2021
Workshop (online): October 24th, 2021
The first half of the workshop aims to build a shared language around CJ and establish a common ground for participants to share perspectives and experiences regarding the dynamics involved in citing. We start by exploring the following questions:
What is CJ?
Why is CJ needed?
What does CJ look or feel like?
What does CJ lead to?
Who does CJ affect, when, and to what extent?
What are our experiences or witnesses of citational injustice (What happened? What might have been a better outcome?)
Activities in the first session include:
Multiple rounds of “speed dating” to enable groups of participants to introduce themselves and share initial views on CJ and expectations for the workshop.
Sharing and documenting experiences of citational (in)justice using a collaborative virtual board. Participants will begin individually and then in groups to reflect on the factors and actions that led to the experiences, (un)desirable outcomes, and people and other beings impacted in the short and long term. Participants represent their experiences, using personas, storyboards and other techniques.
Collectively characterizing CJ. Referring to the experiences shared on the board participants discuss, in groups: what CJ is, why it is needed and how it would look and feel like. Each group will document their ideas and later share them with the whole group.
Identifying the most pressing issues for the CJ community by modelling the systems and tensions in which citational issues emerge. Participants will also reflect on unresolved questions or loose ends for conversations, including proposing or modifying in-depth discussion tracks for the second half of the workshop.
The second half of the workshop offers multiple tracks in which participants will contribute to in-depth discussion of a particular aspect of CJ. Each track will be facilitated by workshop organizers and will involve different activities and outcomes. Afterwards, the different tracks will reconvene for a larger group discussion on critical commitments in moving forward.
We propose the following initial tracks, however these will be modified and added to based on the outcomes of participants’ discussions in Session 1 of the workshop.
“Citing the 99%”, Track A, will focus on how we can cite knowledge sources that are not archived within elitist media. We will discuss what entities have knowledge, encompassing the human to the non- or beyond human, and how we access and ‘read’ this knowledge. We will also ask how we can raise our awareness about the potential harms in the process of knowledge production. Track A will also envision new citation systems and tools for finding work from scholars, and other knowers, beyond the mainstream.
“CJ Research Agenda”, Track B, will focus on research topics around CJ, including how we might systematically understand the distribution of citations in HCI, how researchers cite, and the impacts of CJ. It will also provide an opportunity to map out and share institutional, fiscal, and academic resources to advance research on CJ.
“The Human and Institutional Infrastructure of CJ”, Track C, will create a space for knowledge producers in HCI and CSCW to re-imagine knowledge production systems. In this track, community members coming from diverse forms of knowing and being can discuss how to support each other in navigating institutional power networks and rethinking knowledge production processes, such as reviewing and tenure evaluations.
Gabriela Molina León, University of Bremen, Germany | Gabriela Molina León is a Ph.D. student at the University of Bremen. She investigates how to design interactive visualizations for social science researchers through participatory methods. As part of her research, she organizes co-creation workshops to collaboratively design data exploration tools.
Lynn Kirabo , Carnegie Mellon University, USA | Lynn Kirabo is a Ph.D Student at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Her research includes Human-Computer Interaction, Accessibility, Global South, Misinformation and Ethics. She is interested in understanding the role that context plays in technology design & adoption among different communities, such as people with disabilities and residents of the Global South.
Marisol Wong-Villacrés , Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral, Ecuador | Marisol Wong-Villacrés is an Associate Professor at Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral in Ecuador. Her research explores how cultural and learning science theories can inform an assets-based participatory design of technologies that support historically marginalized groups, such as immigrant parents from developing regions, in pursuing sustainable, emancipatory transformations.
Naveena Karusala, University of Washington, USA | Naveena Karusala is a PhD student at the University of Washington in the United States. Her research looks at why and how emerging technologies are used in care work in the Global South.
Neha Kumar , Georgia Institute of Technology, USA | Neha Kumar is an Associate Professor at Georgia Tech. Her research lies at the intersection of human-centered computing and global development. She was trained in computer science, design, and ethnography at UC Berkeley (BS,Ph.D.) and Stanford University (MS, MA). Neha leads the Technology and Design for Empowerment (TanDEm) lab at Georgia Tech.
Nicola Bidwell , International University of Management, Namibia | Nicola Bidwell has collaborated, in-depth, with indigenous and rural knowledge holders in Australia and Africa since 2005. She is an Adjunct Professor in IT at the International University of Management, Namibia.
Pedro Reynolds-Cuéllar, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA | Pedro Reynolds-Cuéllar is a Ph.D. student at the Media, Arts and Sciences program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research focuses on connecting ancestral technology cultures with methods in design education, practice and activism in the US and Colombia.
Pranjal Jain, the UX Whale, India | Pranjal is a design researcher. His designs for ethical data practices and online privacy through speculative and critical design. He is a co-founder of theUXWhale, a design research studio. He has a Masters in Human-Centered Design from Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology, Bangalore, and a Bachelors in Electronics Engineering from Vellore Insitute of Technology, Vellore.
Pranjal Protim Borah , Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati, India | He is a Ph.D. student working in accessibility and tangible interaction at IIT Guwahati, India. His research interests include designing inclusive interaction techniques for emerging technologies.
Radhika Garg , Syracuse University, USA | Radhika Garg is an Assistant Professor at the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University. Her research focuses on understanding how technology non-/use is influenced by one’s intersectional identity. Recently she has been involved with multiple projects that investigated how diverse families with children learn about, engage with, and use voice-based technologies in their homes.
Sushil Oswal , University of Washington, USA | Sushil Oswal is a Professor of Human-Centered Design in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences and an Affiliate Professor in the Disability Studies Program at the University of Washington. His research encompasses HCI and accessibility issues in web design, digital library databases, self-service kiosks, learning management systems, and his theoretical work focuses on participatory design in HCI. He is currently completing an empirical study of HCI in healthcare during COVID-19 pandemic.
Vishal Sharma, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA | Vishal Sharma is a Ph.D. student at the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology. Hisresearch interests lie at the intersection of Sustainable HCI and HCI for development. He investigates how digital technologies could be leveraged to strengthen capacities and build capabilities of people living in resource-constrained settings to design interventions themselves to address sustainability-related problems they face.
Tee Chuanromanee, University of Notre Dame, USA | Tee Chuanromanee is a fourth year PhD student at the University of Notre Dame. Their research examines trans perspectives on technologies, and how gender transition technologies are impacted by normative transition narratives.