On May 22, 2026, nearly thirty UW scholars and champions of feminist technoscience from across three campuses and disciplines gathered at UW Press for a Feminist Technoscience Meet-Up hosted by Society + Technology at UW after guest-of-honor Ly Xīnzhèn M. Zhǎngsūn Brown’s public lecture, “What Does Law Mean in Crisis? How Crip Feminist Technoscience Will Save Us,” held the previous evening at Town Hall Seattle.
Ly Xīnzhèn M. Zhǎngsūn Brown
Rather than organizing the gathering around formal presentations or introductions, participants were invited to bring an “object of wisdom and wonder” that might glitch, jolt, or reconfigure technologies, systems, or infrastructures toward greater survival now and thriving then.
The prompt was inspired by Brown’s provocation, “in the shadow of an empire, in a world on fire, what if we could imagine—and build—otherwise?”
Participants took turns sharing their objects: a handmade deck of cards, a zine that imagines techno-futures, a Cambodian krama, a photograph of a beloved collaborator, a heavy calligraphy pen, stickers with instructions on box breathing, an interpreter and moment of translation, and Brown’s observation that they are a technology of contradiction.
A snippet of the prompt on a collaborative student zine that Associate Professor of Social Work Clara Berridge brought as her object of wisdom and wonder, created by students in her course, “Social Welfare and AI: Power, Ethics, and Social Impacts. Credit: Clara Berridge.
From left: Monika Sengul-Jones, Vannary Sou, Ly Xīnzhèn M. Zhǎngsūn Brown, and Ruth Karen Nakigozi at Senait Ethiopian Restaurant in Lake City, Seattle.
Society + Technology at UW fosters greater cross-campus and cross-disciplinary collaborations on the social, societial, and ethical aspects of technology through community programs like this.
The Feminist Technoscience mixer was co-sponsored by UW Press, Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies (GWSS), the UW Tech Policy Lab, and CREATE.
Special thanks to the undergraduates from the Tech Policy Lab, which hosts Society + Technology at UW, who helped make the experience of gathering go smoothly: Vannary Sou, Ruth Karen Nakigozi, and Raani Nigam. And thanks to Brown for sharing their love for Ethiopian cuisine afterwards.
The 2025 cohort of students in the Society + Technology at UW course for the Global Innovation Exchange. Photo credit: Justin Horne
Society + Technology at UW is pleased to announce a renewed partnership with the University of Washington’s Global Innovation Exchange (GIX) for 2026. This is the second year of collaboration that brings affiliated scholars from across the UW community into a lecture series for the Master of Science in Technology Innovation (MSTI) program for the course, The History and Future of Technology: Responsible Innovation.
Led by Monika Sengul-Jones, Ph.D., the course draws on Science and Technology Studies (STS) and guest lectures from Society + Technology at UW affiliates to guide students in understanding technology as a socio-technical process shaped by—and shaping—structures of power.
Guest Speakers
(Alphabetical Order)
Jessica L. Beyer
Topic: Information Sharing and Cybersecurity Jessica L. Beyer is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at UW Seattle and a leader of the school’s Cybersecurity Initiative. Her award-winning research examines international technology politics, online communities, and dis/misinformation, including projects on COVID-19 information flows and Internet of Things security. She is an expert in the politics of cybersecurity and mentors student research across multiple programs. Her work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the UW Population Health Initiative. Jessica is the author of Expect Us: Online Communities and Political Mobilization (Oxford University Press, 2014).
Alex Bolton
Topic: Tech Policy Alex Bolton is Executive Director of the Tech Policy Lab at UW Seattle and a 2025-26 Non-Resident Research Fellow with the Siegel Family Endowment. The Tech Policy Lab is an interdisciplinary collaboration crossing the School of Law, the Information School, and the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. Alex leads the strategy and programming, convenes campus-wide discussions on technology policy, and co-teaches courses on technology law, policy, and ethics. He is also a founding member of the Public Tech Leadership Collaborative Steering Committee, a program of Data & Society. Alex previously worked in state government and higher education, including for former Washington Governor and U.S. Senator Daniel J. Evans. He holds a J.D., M.P.A., and B.A. from the University of Washington.
Agnieszka Jeżyk
Topic: Tech Anxiety Agnieszka Jeżyk is the Maria Kott Endowed Assistant Professor of Polish Studies in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at UW Seattle. Her research focuses on marginal subjectivities, avant-garde literature, and representations of technology in Central and Eastern Europe, with an emphasis on psychoanalysis, horror, and material culture in the Cold War period. She has held academic positions at the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Toronto. Her work connects literary and cultural analysis to broader questions about technology, affect, and modernity.
Beth Kolko
Topic: Responsible and Creative Innovation Beth Kolko is a Professor in the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering at UW Seattle. Her work focuses on human-centered entrepreneurship and the role of design in shaping more equitable forms of innovation. She leads initiatives such as REgroup, which brings together students, founders, and investors to rethink entrepreneurship, and previously directed labs focused on digital inclusion and technology design. Kolko is also co-founder and former CEO of Shift Labs, a company developing low-cost medical devices for emerging markets. Her career crosses academia, industry, and global consulting, with experience at Microsoft Research, the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard, and organizations in multiple countries.
Society + Technology at UW is pleased to promote the next event in the Signals & Society series, Personal Robots — Is It Finally Time? on Monday, February 9, 2026, at 5:30 PM at Lonely Siren (1501 Pike Pl, Level 2, #200, Seattle, WA 98101).
This will be a conversation with Ryan Calo (Law & Information, UW Seattle) and Maya Cakmak (Computer Science, UW Seattle) on what’s at stake when robots are the gatekeepers to our intimate routines and confidential secrets.
Free and open to the public. No registration required. Add to calendar.
Society + Technology at UW’s community of affiliates expands with a new community partner, the Seattle University Technology Ethics Initiative.
Directed by Professor Onur Bakiner (SU, Political Science), whose research and teaching focus on technology and society, the Seattle University Technology Ethics initiative seeks to bring together students, faculty, practitioners, and community members to explore how technologies shape power, accountability, and the public good.
This cross-institutional partnership indexes a shared commitment to cross-disciplinary collaboration and to creating spaces where open conversations about technology, society, and justice can flourish across institutions and communities.
Society + Technology at UW welcomes interest from community organizations, nonprofits, and industry groups who see value in what we’re building and would like to be part of it. To learn more about joining the Society + Technology at UW affiliate circle, email mmjones@uw.edu.
