On Activism and Academia: Reflecting Together and Sharing Experiences Among Critical Friends
Abstract
In recent years HCI and CSCW work has increasingly begun to address complex social problems and issues of social justice worldwide. Such activist-leaning work is not without problems. Through the experiences and reflections of an activist becoming academic and an academic becoming an activist, we outline these difficulties such as (1) the risk of perpetuating violence, oppression and exploitation when working with marginalised communities, (2) the reception of activist-academic work within our academic communities, and (3) problems of social justice that exist within our academic communities. Building on our own experiences, practices and existing literature from a variety of disciplines we advocate for the possibility of an activist-academic practice, outline possible ways forward and formulate questions we need to answer for HCI to contribute to a more just world.
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These projects point to blurred boundaries between activism and academia and open up various roles researchers can take, such as facilitators and supporters, to center workers' epistemic authority, redirect resources to community experts, and facilitate collective actions.
“These projects point to the blurred boundaries between activism and academia [77] and open up to various roles researchers can take, such as facilitators and supporters, to center workers’ epistemic authority, redirect resources to community experts, and facilitate collective actions.”
From 'The plan is just survival': Data Work in Kenya and the Regime of Entrapment (2026) · cites this paper as [77]
Cites
Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective
Haraway, D. (1988) · Feminist Studies · doi:10.2307/3178066 · Cited by 18,364 · see citing works
Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy
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Tying Knots: Participatory Infrastructuring at Work
Bødker, S., Dindler, C., & Iversen, O. S. (2017) · Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) · doi:10.1007/s10606-017-9268-y · Cited by 210 · cited 1× · see citing works
“While some PD literature allows for this kind of political attachment to the research [23, 26, 47], my training had not prepared me for the deeply personal relationships I would build with partners.”
Background"I am just terrified of my future" Epistemic Violence in Disability Related Technology Research
Ymous, A., Spiel, K., Keyes, O., Williams, R. M., Good, J., Hornecker, E., & Bennett, C. L. (2020) · Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3334480.3381828 · Cited by 160 · see citing works
Prefigurative Politics and Passionate Witnessing
Williams, R. M., & Boyd, L. E. (2019) · Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility · doi:10.1145/3308561.3355617 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
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Winkle, K., McMillan, D., Arnelid, M., Harrison, K., Balaam, M., Johnson, E., & Leite, I. (2023) · Proceedings of the 2023 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction · doi:10.1145/3568162.3576973 · Cited by 111 · see citing works
'The plan is just survival': Data Work in Kenya and the Regime of Entrapment
Kapania, S., Yang, T., Abdelkadir, N. A., Scheuerman, M. K., Miceli, M., Taylor, A. S., & Fox, S. E. (2026) · Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3772318.3791097 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
“These projects point to the blurred boundaries between activism and academia [77] and open up to various roles researchers can take, such as facilitators and supporters, to center workers’ epistemic authority, redirect resources to community experts, and facilitate collective actions.”
- Authors
- Leal, D. D. C., Strohmayer, A., & Krüger, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Siegen, Germany
- Northumbria University (GB)
- University of Siegen (DE)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
- Publisher
- ACM
- Published
- 2021-05-06
- Pages
- 1-18
- OpenAlex
- W3126345076
- Cited by
- 58
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 5
- FWCI
- 7.46
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (publishedVersion)
- Northumbria Research Link (Northumbria University) (acceptedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
- Social Sciences › Education › Service-Learning and Community Engagement
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Information Systems Theories and Implementation
- Keywords
- activism, academia, social justice, human-computer interaction, computer-supported cooperative work, marginalized communities, exploitation and oppression, academic community
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