Conversations with Practitioners

The EAAMO-Bridges community aims to bridge research and practice, but many researchers have few opportunities to connect with practitioners. The aim of this working group is to learn from practitioners and contribute our skillsets when collaborating on problems with them. These practitioners work with historically marginalized communities and often have an interest, or expertise, in the ways technology disproportionately affects these communities.

In previous years, our group has been focused solely on interviewing practitioners. The group meets at the beginning of the year to get to know one another; throughout the year, our group members lead informal interviews with practitioners of their choosing alongside our group (similar to a “fireside chat”). After the interview, we summarise the main insights into a blog post, examples of which can be found below.

For the 2024-2025 year, we aim to build a new structure. In the autumn, we plan to hold multiple conversations with one organization to scope a project with them to which our members can contribute. We have a few different organizations we are in touch with, including Chayn (gender based violence tech-focused NGO), the EAAMO Social Hackathon organizers (who have access to a Mexican breast cancer dataset with environmental and policy elements), AlgorithmWatch, and the Center for Analytical Approaches to Social Innovation. For the winter/spring 2025, we then will dive into a project we have designed with our partner organization.

Interviews #

Here is an abridged list of practitioners our group has interviewed. Click on the practitioner’s name to read the summary blog post of the interview. We have the full list of our interviews on the EAAMO Medium blog.

Dan Sutch (May 2024) #

Dan Sutch is the co-founder and director of CAST, the Centre for Acceleration of Social Technology in the UK, where he works with charities and third-sector organisations to use and adjust to digital technologies to address big social challenges.

Yolanda Booyzen (April 2024) #

Yolanda Booyzen is the Director of Development and Communications of HURIDOCS which is an NGO that helps human rights groups gather, organise and use information to create positive change in the world.

Damini Satija (November 2023) #

Damini Satija is a human rights and public policy professional working on data and Artificial Intelligence. She is Head of the Algorithmic Accountability Lab and a Deputy Director at Amnesty Tech.

Michela Martinazzi and Josh Komarovsky (April 2023) #

Michela and Josh are volunteers at the New York Community Action Project (NYCAP), an organization that advocates for community control of the local city police service to prevent police brutality.

Su Wang (Aug 2022) #

Co-founder of SEED for Social Innovation in China, a nonprofit organization that discovers, trains, and connects China’s young social innovators.

Kristina Koenig (July 2022) #

Manages carbon abatement programs working with Indigenous peoples in the Kimberley Region of Western Australia.

Swapna Reddy (Dec 2021) #

Co-founder and co-executive director of Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP), a non-profit organisation that strives to improve the lives of asylum seekers in the United States.

Working Group Organizers #

Working Group Members #

Previous Working Group Organizers #

Our group is grateful to Salma Belhajali, a journalist based in Morocco, for giving us training on conducting interviews, and to Christian Ramirez for co-leading at the beginning stages.