short version! I analyze how under-served populations appropriate, play, and, interact with digital communication technology. I am passionate about explaining how cultural orientations influence technology use, regulation, and design. As an ethnographer, sociologist, and researcher, my goal is to engage with technology designers and investors, policy makers, and non-profit organizations so that we can become better informed about the everyday lives of low-income communities. I received a NSFgrant to be the first invited visiting scholar from the US to research at The Chinese Internet Network Information Center(equivalent to US's FCC) in Beijing, China. I am a Fulbright Scholar to China and a Transatlantic 2020 Fellow. My research interests include digital gaming, entrepreneurship, (im)migration, information theory, families, education, urban studies, social cartogprahy/GIS, and product design. Prior to my academic turn, I was a hip-hop education advocate, youth media strategist, and community organizer. I currently split my time between New York, California, and my research sites in China and Mexico. I blog about culture and technology at Cultural Bytes, free-information narratives at Info Perpetia, Chinese youth and technology at YouMeiTI, and cities and space at Digital Urbanisms.
I am human! I play a lot. I am part wolf and monkey. I'm trained as amodern dancerand love to salsa. I'veeaten live insects and lit fires on my body. My memory sucks so I take tons of pictures. I jump,eat, police fashion titicacas and titillations, collect doggy purses, document urban art, and ride my foldable bike. I believe in pussy power and I think you should too. I love to eat vietnamee Pho so much that I have a blog about it.I also keep a blog about arrow ringand jumping. I track of quotes that make me happy on Dichos y Vida. My personal blog is Hi Tricia. My friends think I am awesome. Here is a more narrative friendly version of how I grew up came to be a powerful wolf. I have great mentors.
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past research! My research has received funding from several agencies and has covered national and My research takes place in a wide range of international settings and has received funding from several agencies. I employ a variety of ethnographic methods in each field site depending on the contexts. I use participant observation, mental maps, photographic illicitation, informal interviews, shadowing, and workshop groups. I was a co-researcher with Barry Brown on a grant funded by the University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States (UC MEXUS)where we analyzed emerging information communication technology (ICT) practices of new technology users from a rural, migrant-sending village in Mexico. In the summer of 2008 I was an invited scholar to participate in the China-India-US Workshop on Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Workshop in Bangalore, India. From the workshop, I was funded by the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum to conduct ethnographic fieldwork in Banglore on the role of NGOs in technology innovation policy-making. After completing the fieldwork, I was also asked by the California Institute of Technology (CalIT)to stay in India to assess the potential use of cellphones as predictors of water born diseases. I have also served as the Graduate Student Advisor Editor for Science, Technology, and Human Values, Journal of the Society for Social Studies of Science.
Dissertation research! I am currently finishing up a phd in the Sociology Department at UC San Diego. My dissertation research in China is a dive into the world of how low-income migrant families (youth and adults) make use of communication technologies such as cellphones, internet cafes, or traditional landlines, to manage their social ties. I particularly like working with families, informal economy workers, and teenagers. I look at this from the policy angle through my work with China with the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC). I am undergoing 1 year of ethnographic research with migrant families in Wuhan. Lastly I will be conducting informal interview with the entrepreneurs of the social media technologies that migrants use. I expand research on new technologies by situating everyday communication practices among the socio-political intersection of digital architectures, urban policies, technology protocols, cultural landscapes and spatial orientations. I hold a B.A. in Communications from UCSD. You can read more about my research projects, dissertation, and wonderful committee.
work! I collaborate on short-term consulting gigs that allow me to explore a diveristy of intellectual and practice-based collaborations. Most recently I've worked with Nokia Research Center in Palo Alto and Adobe Inc's Youth VoicesInitiative project with What Kids Can Do.
future! I have yet to decide what kind of institution I want to grow with when I finally finish my pdh; it could be industry, academia, ngo, or think-tanks. But I do know that I want to be where ever I can make the greatest social impact - a place that holds itself accountable to its community, to interdiscplinary interactions, and to innovation.
past! My experiences in technology consulting, teaching, and organizing in low-income communities enable me to bring a strong inter-disciplinary approach to my academic work. Before pursuing a phd, I developed and managed digital literacy programs for institutions such as United Nations, National Aeronautics Space Agency, and New York City public school system. I bridged my interest in public access and youth media with my passion for education reform by founding an advoacy and training program for education practioners on how to use hip-hop as a pegogical tool.
