DINS Faculty member Yu-Ru Lin awarded Pitt Momentum Funding

DINS faculty member Yu-Ru Lin has been awarded a Pitt Momentum grant to work on a digital infrastructure to support police accountability. Details are below:


Title: Co-building Human and Digital Infrastructures Against Systemic Oppression: G2A police misconduct complaint support system 

PIs: Sera Linardi, Associate Professor (GSPIA, ISP), Yu-Ru Lin, Associate Professor (DINS/SCI, ISP)

Abstract:

Digital infrastructure that makes visible the problems hidden in policies and processes has been viewed as critical means to addressing systematic racism and oppression. However, these infrastructures are difficult to design and maintain because the researchers and information technology workers that build them are often too far removed from those with lived experiences of oppression. Compounding this problem, the careful and consistent engagement to become true partners with marginalized communities often goes unrecognized in academic work, or exists only within non-research silos. This proposal seeks to simultaneously address both issues by 1) using a novel community engagement platform led by GSPIA to support SCI-led design of a digital infrastructure to mediate transparency in policing, and 2) to use the development of the digital platform as a focal point for focused deepening and expansion of the community platform.