Migration and Mobility in HCI
Rethinking Boundaries, Methods, and Impact
at the ACM CHI conference
Saturday, May 8th, 2021. 9AM-1pm EDT (Virtual)
About the Workshop
Research on migration (both internal and external, voluntary and forced) has been an emergent domain in HCI and related disciplines over the past decade. However, as the number of migrants has been increasing over the last two decades, coupled with various growing global affairs, new challenges encountered by diverse types of migrants (e.g. international students, migrant workers) keep arising, and research on mobility gets entangled with many broader social and political issues. Hence, migration can no longer be considered as a ‘special case’ for some immigrant and refugee communities, but an everyday reality to hundreds of millions of people worldwide and across diverse socio-economic groups. Therefore, the objectives of this workshop are to (a) build a community with HCI researchers and practitioners involved in different domains, within and beyond migration, to share ideas and exchange expertise, (b) broaden the scope of HCI migration research and identify gaps within this field, and (c) provide a safe space for critical reflection on methodological approaches, research infrastructure, and space boundaries in relation with migration to achieve a better real-world impact.
Program & Attendance
More info about virtual attendance will be added shortly.
To register for the conference and the workshop, please refer to https://chi2021.acm.org/information/4702.html. The cost of workshop registration is $30 + conference registration fee for at least one day. The conference registration fee depends on where you are based. Please refer to the link above for more details.
Mar 2 (update) - Dear potential delegates, please note the workshop organisers are in discussion with the overall workshops chairs (who are discussing with the Accessibility Chairs and the General Chairs) for ACM CHI 2021. Please note the current set of technologies listed should not be a barrier to your participation.Please apply to attend and we will discuss your accessibility needs with you. As chairs for this particular workshop we are committed to being inclusive so we will work with our delegates to ensure participation for all as CHI 2021 is for all. This might mean we drop our plans to use any particular technology if we cannot find a suitable way to make the experience for delegates inclusive.
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
|
9:00 - 9:15 |
Welcoming notes and opening keynote 1 by a co-organizer |
|
9:15 - 9:35 |
Opening keynote 2 by a co-organizer |
|
9:35 - 10:00 |
Activity 1: Mapping progress and future trends for HCI and migration research (breakout rooms) |
|
10:00 - 10:10 |
Groups reporting on the topics discussed in the breakout rooms |
|
10:10 - 10:20 |
Break |
|
10:20 - 10:55 |
Participants' Presentations |
|
10:55 - 11:20 |
Activity 2: Co-creating future plans for HCI and migration research (breakout rooms) |
|
11:20 - 11:30 |
Groups reporting on the topics discussed in the breakout rooms |
|
11:30 - 11:40 |
Break |
|
11:40 - 12:15 |
Participants' Presentations |
|
12:15 - 12:40 |
Activity 3: Next steps & formulating scope of a special issue (breakout rooms) |
|
12:40 - 12:50 |
Groups reporting on the topics discussed in the breakout rooms |
|
12:50-13:00 |
Closing remarks |
Call for Participation
Research on migration (both internal and external, voluntary and forced) has been an emergent domain in HCI and related disciplines over the past decade. As the numbers of migrants are always on the rise, mobility can no longer be considered as a ‘special case’ for some immigrant and refugee communities, but an everyday reality to hundreds of millions of people worldwide and across diverse socio-economic groups (e.g. international students, migrant workers). The aims of this workshop are to (a) build a community with HCI researchers and practitioners involved in different domains, within and beyond migration, (b) broaden the scope of HCI migration research and identify field’s gaps, and (c) provide a safe space for critical reflection on methodological approaches, research infrastructure, and space boundaries in the migration context to achieve a better real-world impact.
The workshop will be interactive in nature in which participants will be asked to work in thematic clusters to create a collective vision for future migration and HCI research, identify how to overcome research challenges and develop action plans, and establish the infrastructures needed to progress research in this area.
We invite researchers as well as practitioners interested in participating to submit position papers under the following themes, but we also welcome and are excited about all submissions that fall under other themes:
- [Re]defining the scope of migration in HCI research: discuss rarely studied migration groups in HCI and what boundaries are used to identify migration groups.
- Methodological approaches: examine the various challenges they face in the field and propose concrete examples of research approaches that should be explored in future work.
- Real-world impact: explore the best practices to achieve real-life impact in contexts of migration, either through research methodologies, partnership with local community bodies, or other novel approaches.
Submission Guidelines
Submitted position papers must not exceed four (4) pages in the ACM Master Article Templates format (can be found under ‘Quick Links’ at https://chi2021.acm.org/for-authors/chi-publication-formats) including references and should be sent in PDF format to migrationchi@gmail.com (please title the email “CHI2021 workshop submission”). Position papers will be selected based on the contribution to the workshop themes, quality of presentation, and the potential to stimulate discussions. Upon acceptance, at least one author must attend the workshop virtually, do a live presentation or prepare a recorded video of the presentation (3-4 minutes), and register for both the workshop and for at least one day of the conference. All accepted papers will be archived on the workshop’s websit: http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~dsabie/MigrationWorkshop/
Important Dates
Submission deadline #1: 5 March 2021 (for notifications before the conference's early registration deadline)- Submission deadline # 2 [updated]: 15 April 2021
- Camera-Ready paper (& Presentation Video if desired) Deadline: 23 April 2021
- Presentations at the Workshop: Saturday, 8 May 2021 (9:00 EDT - 13:00 EDT). Virtual.
Organizers
Dina Sabie is a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science at the University of Toronto. Her research explores the potential of design, digital technologies, and co-creative activities to support migrants’ emotional needs and enhance their relationships with the hosting communities. She has engaged with immigrants, refugees, and IDPs, and her work is based across multiple sites around the globe, with a focus on Canada and Iraq.
Dr. Reem Talhouk is a Vice-Chancellor Research Fellow at Northumbria University. Her research focuses on designing humanitarian technologies to improve refugee and asylum seekers' resilience, health and wellbeing, and agency. She also conducts research exploring the role of design within humanitarian innovation. She has led several CHI workshops and SIGs.
Cansu E. Dedeoglu is a Ph.D. student in information science at the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on individual and organizational information activities and technology design in humanitarian and settlement contexts. Her work leverages data responsibility, inclusive policy, and community engagement approaches to improve humanitarian outcomes with refugees and immigrants.
Dr. Carleen Maitland is co-Director of the Institute for Information Policy and Associate Professor in the College of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State University. Her expertise includes analyses of ICT use in international organizations, particularly those responding to refugee crises. Her work has been carried out in East Africa, the Middle East, and South America, working with organizations such as the UNHCR, the U.S. State Department, and HIAS.
Volker Wulf is a computer scientist with an interest in the area of IT system design in real-world contexts, and a special focus on flexible software architectures can be adapted by end-users and methods of user-oriented software development and introduction processes. He is head of the Institute for Information Systems and New Media at the University of Siegen.
Dr. Eiad Yafi is an Assistant Professor at the Malaysian Institute of Information Technology, University of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Broadly, his research focuses on Knowledge Discovery using Data Mining and Process Mining techniques. He is also an active researcher in the areas of Information and Communication Technologies for Development and Human-Computer Interactions.
Samar Sabie is a Ph.D. student of Information Science at Cornell University and a doctoral fellow at the Cornell Tech Digital Life Initiative. Her work investigates the role design as a social practice can play in the spatial politics of intercultural, interclass, and intergenerational differences in urban contexts. She studied shelter and technology conditions in refugee and IDP camps in Iraq, but now focuses on migration issues in North American contexts.
Asam Almoahmed is a Ph.D. student in HCI at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). His current research focuses on the role of ICT in supporting refugees to integrate into the host community by promoting their social capital. He has worked with the school of public health and social work, QUT to understand how the use of social media affects intergenerational relationships within refugee families. He also worked as an assistant lecturer of computer science at the University of Kerbala, Iraq
Safa'a AbuJarour is a researcher and a faculty member in Business Informatics at the University of Potsdam. She is also an Executive Board Member of the AIS Women Network College and the founder of the “Place4Refugees” NGO in Germany that assists refugees and newcomers with their integration process. Her research relates to social inclusion and digital integration topics and has been published at top-tier venues.
Dr. Kahina Le Louvier is a Senior Research Assistant on the H2020 PERCEPTIONS project, which investigates the impact of perceptions of Europe on migration behaviors and policies. Her Ph.D. research focused on the information experience of people seeking asylum in the UK. She is particularly interested in information practices, heritage, belonging, participation, migration governance, and the role of the civil society.
Dr. Faheem Hussain’s latest research works focus on the intersection between ICTs and displaced populations. He is currently working as a Clinical Assistant Professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University. He received his Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University.
Dr. Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Toronto. He researches the intersection between HCI and ICTD, in the Indian subcontinent and North America. He has pursued ethnographic and design studies to explore privacy, security, and surveillance concerns among the marginalized populations including refugees, mobile phone repairers, and victims of sexual harassmen.