icon of a window in style of old operating systems

Hey it's Sam. I'm a fourth year PhD student in Human-Centered Design and Engineering at University of Washington, and I am co-advised by Drs. Sean Munson and Sucheta Ghoshal. I draw from critical perspectives on technology design and production to investigate the values, beliefs, and meanings underlying sociotechnical systems.

My research examines sociotechnical imaginaries of personal data from corporate and user perspectives, tracing power dynamics between users and data-driven platforms. I am interested in how individuals engage with their personal data in mundane, reflective, and potentially subversive ways. I draw from human-computer interaction (HCI) research, critical data studies, and science and technology (STS) studies to interrogate personal data systems and their ethical, political, and epistemological stakes.

More recently, I have been working on a NSF-funded project on the 2022-2023 tech layoffs, and I led a two-phase study with tech workers on their post-layoff experiences. The findings of this work speak to accountability mechanisms in the tech workplace, potential for tech worker organizing, and affective attachments to tech work. I am excited to share this work soon.

glad to meet you. here's more about me.

I grew up in Queens, New York, and graduated with a B.A. in Computer Science from Pomona College. I also recently received a MS from HCDE. I enjoy listening to music, writing letters to my friends, and thinking of my next tattoo idea. I have recently attempted to ferment Kimchi.

You can find my CV here. Feel free to reach out on Twitter, LinkedIn, or send an e-mail to [samuelso] (at) uw [dot] edu.