How can design contribute to a more equitable and sustainable world? Researchers in this cluster work alongside communities—particularly those historically excluded from technology and service design—to address structural inequities and envision long-term, restorative futures.
This work is grounded in values of equity, justice, and sustainability, and reflects a deep commitment to participatory, community-centered research. Faculty in this cluster engage with complex challenges like climate change, humanitarian response, accessibility, and technology's role in systemic harm.
Research spans topics such as sustainability transitions, environmental restoration, disability access, crisis informatics, and emerging technologies within political and social contexts. Across these efforts, we examine how design can both repair and reimagine relationships between people, systems, and environments.
HCDE researchers
Recent publications
- Daniela Rosner and Sucheta Ghoshal - Data as Landed Property in Leonardo (July 2026)
- Tyler Fox - From Anticipation to Aspiration: Reorienting Design Pedagogy for Uncertain Futures presented at the Anticipation 2026 conference (July 2026)
- David Ribes - Machineries of Similarity and Difference: AIDS from Its Research Infrastructures. MIT Press (April 2026)
- Leah Findlater - SceneScout: Towards AI-Driven Access to Street Level Imagery for Blind Users in Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26) (April 2026)
- Leah Findlater - Interface Support for Evaluating Disability Bias in AI Generated Images in Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26) (April 2026)
- Beth Kolko - Framing Responsible Design of AI for Mental Well-Being: AI as Primary Care, Nutritional Supplement, or Yoga Instructor? in Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26) (April 2026)
- Emily Tseng - "Chat, Should I Leave Him?" Risks, Rewards, and Roles for AI in Relationship Advice in Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26) (April 2026)
- Kate Starbird - Data Visualizations as Propaganda: Tracing Lineages, Provenance, and Political Framings in Online Anti-Immigrant Discourse in Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (November 2025). Received a Best Paper Award at CSCW '25
- Sucheta Ghoshal and Sayamindu Dasgupta - From Data Activism to Activism in a Time of Data-Centrism: Affirming Epistemological Heterogeneity in Social Movements in Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (May 2025). Received an Honorable Mention Award at CSCW '25
- Sucheta Ghoshal - Research and/as Relation: Documenting Experiences of Community-Collaborative Researchers in HCI in Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (November 2025). Received an Honorable Mention Awardat CSCW '25
- Leah Findlater - Modeling Accessibility: Characterizing What We Mean by “Accessible” in Proceedings of the 27th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '25) (October 2025)
- Leah Findlater - “Before, I Asked My Mom, Now I Ask ChatGPT”: Visual Privacy Management with Generative AI for Blind and Low-Vision People in Proceedings of the 27th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '25) (October 2025)