about me
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I am a PhD candidate in Communication at University of Southern California with a graduate certificate in Science and Technology Studies (STS). I am interested in the digital mediation of emotion and affect across emerging technologies. My doctoral dissertation is a multi-sited ethnography about the making of social robots and companion AI systems in U.S. laboratories and Asian consumer markets, asking how care, empathy, and emotional support are imagined and designed in technical capacities. My ongoing and published scholarly work studies topics such as digital grief and care pratices in more-than-human context. I am currently thinking through how ethnographic sensibilities might be expanded for the study of sociotechnical systems. Methodologically, my work combines ethnography, interviews, surveys, and design research methods, with a broader commitment to critical HCI. I am advised by Professors Jennifer Petersen and Christina Dunbar-Hester, and Dr. Aisling Kelliher.
Before joining Annenberg, I studied East Asian Studies and Media Arts and Practice, and worked as a journalist for international news outlets in Asia and the United States.
Alongside my scholarly work, I write fiction and poetry. Most of my published fiction is available online, and my poetry chapbook is forthcoming with Black Sunflower Poetry Press in 2026.
Research concentrations: Feminist STS, Critical HCI, Design Ethics, Affective Computing
Charting In-betweenness Through Sensory
Imaginaries, Linguistic Musings, and Critical Design
Method: workshop, rapid prototyping, participatory design, design probe
The concept of in-betweenness, a state of being intermediate, transitional, or liminal between two points or stages, entails navigating a spectrum of cultural, linguistic, and identity-related dimensions. This interstitial offers a rich tapestry of experiences that are often underexplored traditional design practices. This paper introduces a novel workshop format designed for individuals who navigate the complexity of inbetweenness, offering tools for them to express, exchange, and creatively channel their experiential liminality into tangible output. The workshop is carefully crafted to create an open space that invites agential storytelling and empathetic cross-reading among participants. Methodologically inspired by sensory anthropology, sociolinguistics, information science, and design justice, this project seeks to harness the intangible, fluid, and often dishonored in-between experiences and celebrate its creative potential and hermeneutical richness.
The Warmth of the Other – Designing for More-than-Human Interactions by Expressing Organism Well-being Through Thermal Feedback
Method: focus group/workshop, expert interview, Research-through-Design
In this Research-through-Design study, we explore the potential of thermal feedback to express the conditions of organisms used in bio-design, such as fungi, bacteria, and algae. We interviewed bio-design researchers, collected sensor data reflecting the wellbeing of a microbial culture, and developed a prototype that expresses this biodata through thermal feedback. We present three tensions that designers should negotiate when expressing biodata through thermal feedback (I) explicitness of data representation (II) temporality of thermal feedback, and (III) human versus organism perspectives. Moreover, we outline six thermal parameters to navigate these tensions. We contribute to Bio-HCI and more-than-human design by exploring thermal experiences to communicate biodata and discussing opportunities and challenges of such approaches to data expression.
“Bioluminal Pulse”, 2024
Method: prototyping, art-making, participatory workshop, creative coding
Ephemeral Platforms, Enduring Memories: Errors and Digital Afterlife
Published on International Journal of Communication (2025)
“Baby Girl (1983—1983).” Epiphany
“A Piano Lost in a Forest, Foxes Are Out.” The Adroit Journal #56, The London Magazine Short Story Prize 2025 Longlist.
“Appetizer.” The Sine Theta Magazine issue #35 SHINE. The 7th Writing Contest Finalist.
“Boxes.” The Brussels Review: Rouge. Four Faced Liar Short Story Competition longlist.
Poetry
“Object Permanence.” Occlum issue #16.
“Our Names Together.” Brooklyn Poets. Poet of the Week.
“All we are made of is borrowed,” “On the way to my father’s funeral I see northern lights”. The Inflectionist Review.
“Astronaut’s Window”. HAD.
“Lutzian Method”. Pile Press Issue #11 (print only)
“Loss Angeles: A Glossary”. Meniscus Literary Journal.
“Counterpoint”. Contemporary Verse 2
“Étude No. 17 in Dusk Major”. Yalobusha Review, Yellowwood Poetry Prize Finalist.
September 2026
Selected as residential scholar at Brocher Foundation in Switzerland to work on my dissertation.
June 2026
Started working at Georgetown Tech Institute as a COMPASS fellow, focusing on policy gap in affective computing technologies.
May 2026
Awarded USC Graduate fellowship, STS center summer research fellowship, etc.
December 2025 - present
Doing my dissertation ethnography in China, Tokyo, and multiple labs in the United States.
November 2025
Presented my work on open anthropomorphic design in social robots at Society for Social Studies of Science (4S).
June 2025
Passed the PhD qualification exam and defended my prospectus.
May 2024
Joined “Future Methods” team as a Visiting Researcher at INUSE resarch lab in Department of Design, Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland.
May 2024
Participated in “AI & Digital Afterlife” design workshop at CHI 2025 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Honolulu, Hawaii.
November 2023
Led a design workshop that explores in-betweenness with a group of fellow design & media arts researchers.
June 2023
Attended Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (Quantitative Methods Summer Institute) at University of Michigan. Took Machine Learning, Causal Inference, and Social Network Analysis classes with R.
May 2023
Presented two papers at The 72nd Annual International Communication Association Conference.
Feburary 2023
Presented my work about digital inheritance at Platforming and Unplatforming: A Research Workshop, Arizona State University.
October 2022
Presented my work on sonic diaspora at 2022 NYU Neil Postman Graduate Conference: Hinterlands of Media and Technology.
September 2022
Started PhD in Communication at USC.