ECT Brownbag: Dr. Mia Shaw

A Black Feminist-Womanist perspective on expanding STEM imaginaries through narrative-based, speculative design literacies

When: Thursday, October 17, 2024 | 12 PM - 1PM EST

In this talk, Dr. Mia Shaw discusses restorying through design, a pedagogical approach for interrogating and reimagining dominant narratives and myths through integrating critical literacy, speculative design, and Black Feminist-Womanist theories. Inspired by Black women’s quilting histories, Shaw positions computational quiltmaking as a possible vehicle for not only restorying through design but also uncovering the taken-for-granted imaginaries shaping STEM. She will report on workshops she developed and facilitated during 2019-2021 with high-school-aged participants at an informal, museum-based STEM program, in which youth restoryed myths about technology through designing interactive quilt patches.

About the speaker

Dr. Mia Shaw is an Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow in the Department of Administration, Leadership, and Technology, as part of New York University Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. She earned a PhD in Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was advised by Dr. Yasmin Kafai. In addition, Mia earned an MEd in Curriculum & Instruction from University of Nevada-Las Vegas and BAH in Human Biology (with a focus in Adolescent Development) from Stanford University.

Mia’s focus on designing and evaluating justice-oriented, constructionist STEAM learning environments was shaped dramatically by her experiences teaching middle school science in Las Vegas and as a program coordinator for a STEM-focused nonprofit organization serving girls of Color in Oakland. Her research interests center on using creative, interdisciplinary technologies in order to support identity authorship, community building, and speculative literacy and design practices among Black and Brown youth. Epistemologically, Mia draws from Black Feminist and Womanist theories. In addition to research, Mia is also an illustrator and comic artist who has used her art to support educational research.

Before joining NYU, Mia was awarded the 2022 Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship to complete her dissertation study, which examined the design and implementation of a workshop where nondominant, high-school-aged youth designed interactive quilt patches that reimagined or “restor(y)ed” dominant narratives about computing technologies.