Patricia Garcia

Research Areas

Biography

Patricia Garcia examines the complex relationship between race, gender, computing, and justice. In collaboration with public librarians, she conducts action-based design research and designs computational justice programs that support youth in seeing themselves as active decision-makers who can leverage computing for individual and collective action. Grounded in theories of transformative justice, the computational justice programs historically contextualize forms of community in/justice and support youth in situating their computing identities within broader positive self-concepts and in ways that highlight how the intersections of race and gender can function as sources of power, rather than simply sites of marginalization.

She also examines how data practices used in public service contexts perpetuate forms of oppression and marginalization among vulnerable populations. She draws on concepts from critical data approaches to investigate how data is generated, captured, analyzed, and deployed in public service contexts, such as homeless services and public education systems. Based on findings from these investigations, she creates educational interventions that support vulnerable populations in decision-making processes that facilitate greater control over their data.

Pronouns

She/Her

Areas of interest

Critical Data Studies, Youth Studies, Action-based Design Research, Science and Technology Studies, Computing Education, Researcher-Practitioner Partnerships