Alex Jiahong Lu
鲁 家宏

I am a critical sociotechnical scholar. My work is grounded in critical hci (human-computer interaction) and cscw (computer-supported cooperative work), participatory design (pd), and sts (science and technology studies). I adopt arts-based and community-based participatory research approaches and ethnography in my current work.

I’m an assistant professor of library and information science at rutgers university school of communication and information. I hold a phd in information science and a master of social work from the university of michigan.

✏ Email: ajh.lu@rutgers.edu

[01]
Critical
Inquiry

Labor and Implications of Sociotechnical Infrastructures
My work looks into the labor and social/cultural/material implications of critical infrastructures in varied domains in both the U.S. and China, particularly large-scale data-driven infrastructures of governance and care. Through ethnographic and participatory research approaches, I am particularly interested in how these infrastructures come into being, how institutional and social actors make sense and negotiate with them, and how they mediate and inform particular forms of socialties and ways of knowing (while foreclosing the others).

[02]
Design-based
Inquiry

Decentering through Community-Based Participatory Research and Design
I am committed to centering communities in knowledge coproduction and dissemination. My work both employs and develops community-based participatory research methodologies for studying critical infrastructures and emerging technologies in collaboration with community partners. Through these approaches, I seek to build research practices that center community members’ expertise and lived knowledge in the imagination, design, and governance of technologies and policies.

[03]
Photography

All About Living
All About Living is my photographic project that looks beyond bias and stereotype to mutual understanding, as well as documenting voices, vulnerabilities, and agencies of everyday people and communities, such as North Korea, Cuba, and Mexico. Through the lens of my camera, I hope to depict oft-derided figures in a “foreign” place as what I see: generous and earnest, worthy of respect and empathy.