I study the role computers increasingly play in our articulation of our selves: how we understand who, when, what, and why we are. I focus on the ideologies of these systems, particularly as they are deployed and debated in the developing world—areas that shouldn’t be viewed as in need of charity but instead as rich in a tradition of entrepreneurship and creativity, as places with designs, ideas, and indigenous knowledge that can only inform and nourish the very meaning of computing everywhere.

Recent Publications

• Avle, S., Lindtner, S., and Williams, K. How Methods Make Designers — CHI 2017, Denver, Colorado. May 2017
• Williams, K. Engineering Ethnography — In Knox, H., Nawfus, D. (Eds), Ethnography for a Data Saturated World, Manchester University Press. (Forthcoming, 2018)
• Brynjarsdóttir Holmer, H., Sengers, P., and Williams, K. Seeing Like Seeing Like a State — In Bardzell, J, Bardzell, S, and Blythe, M (Eds), Critical Theory and Interaction Design, MIT Press. (Forthcoming, 2018)
• Williams, K. An Anxious Alliance — Critical Alternatives 2015, Aarhus, Denmark. August 2015
• Experience in/as a Platform — Invited talk at Experience as Evidence? A Symposium on the Sciences of Subjectivity in Healthcare, Policy and Practice, Oxford. Oct 2014
• Feats, Faiths, and Futures: Technology and Progress in the Caribbean — at Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference (EPIC), Doctoral Colloquium, New York. September, 2014
• The Weight of Things Lost — Opening Plenary talk at Quantified Self Europe, Amsterdam. May 2014
• Algorithmic Living as Deliberate Living: Personal Informatics and Shaping a Sense of Self — 4S, San Diego. Oct 2013
• Organizer, with Malte Ziewitz & Phoebe Sengers, Algorithmic Living I & II — 4S, San Diego. Oct 2013
• The Weight of Things Lost: Self-knowledge and Personal Informatics — Personal Informatics in the Wild: Hacking Habits for Health & Happiness workshop. CHI 2013, Paris. April 2013
• Baumer, E.P.S., Adams, P., Khovanskaya, V., Liao, T., Smith, M.E., Sosik, V.S., and Williams, K. Limiting, Leaving, and (re)Lapsing: An Exploration of Facebook Non-Use Practices and Experiences. — CHI 2013, Paris, April 2013
• Future Tense: Developing notions of ICT use in Jamaica — 4S, Copenhagen. Oct 2012
• Tun Yuh Han Mek Fashion: Jamaican DIY and the Making of a New World — Critical Making. Sept 2012
• Future Tense: Developing visions of ICT at the Learning from Marginalized Users: Reciprocity in HCI4D workshop — CSCW 2012, Bellevue, WA. Feb 2012
• Purpura, S., Schwanda, V., Williams, K., Stubler, W., and Sengers, P. Fit4Life: The Design of a Persuasive Technology Promoting Healthy Behavior and Ideal Weight. — CHI 2011, Vancouver, Canada. May 2011
• Small Island, Big Ideas: Using our creative capacity to compete on our own terms — TEDxIrie Conference, Kingston, Jamaica. April 2011