Seyram Avle

Seyram Avle [/ˈsɛi.rɑːm /ˈɑːv.lɛ] is Assistant Professor of Global Digital Media in the Department of Communication at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Her research focuses on digital technology cultures and innovation across parts of Africa, China, and the United States. This work primarily takes a critical approach towards understanding how digital technologies are made and used, as well as their implications for issues of labor, identity, and futures.

Dr. Avle received her PhD from the University of Michigan and her undergraduate degrees from Brandeis University. Her research has been funded by various institutions, including the National Science Foundation.

She is also a visiting fellow at Harvard University's Center for African Studies, an adjunct researcher at the University of Ghana's Center for Asian Studies, and a board member at the Afro-Sino Center of International Relations.

Education

• PhD, Communication University of Michigan
• BA Brandeis University

Academic Publications

• Nikoi, N. & Avle S. [Accepted] In between hogging and passing the mic: Or, the unintended consequences of networked radio in Ghana. Bandung Journal of the Global South. [J8]

• Soden, R., Ribes, D., Avle, S. & Sutherland, W. (2021). Time for historicism in CSCW: An invitation.

• Proceedings of the ACM: Human-Computer Interaction. CSCW2, October 2021. Best Paper Award [C8]

• Jack, M. and Avle, S. (2021). A feminist geopolitics of technology. Global Perspectives (2021) 2 (1). [J7]

• Avle, S. (2020). ‘Making as Imaginative Crossroads: Ghanaian makers and the geopolitics of technology progress.’ Proceedings of ASIS&T, 83rd Annual Meeting: Information for a sustainable world:
  Addressing society’s grand challenges. October 2020. [C7]

• Avle, S., Lin, C., Hardy, J. & Lindtner, S. (2020). ‘Scaling techno-optimistic visions’. Engaging Science, Technology, and Society, 6 (2020), 237-254. [J6]

• Avle, S. (2020). ‘Radio via mobile phones: The intersecting logics of media technologies in Ghana'.
  Media, Culture, and Society, 42(5), 789-799. [J5]

• Avle, S. (2020). ‘Articulando e performando desenvolvimento: retornantes qualificados no negócio de TICs do Gana’. In Comunidades, Algoritmos e Ativismos Digiais: Olhares Afrodiaspóricos. IBPAD/Literua. Brazil, p230-252.

• Avle, S., Hui, J., Lindtner, S. & Dillahunt, T. (2019) ‘Additional labors of the entrepreneurial self’. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Volume 3, Issue CSCW. November 2019, Article No.: 218, pp 1–24. [C6]

• Soden, R., Ribes, D., Jack, M., Sutherland, W., Khovanskaya, V., Avle, S., Sengers, P. and Bødker, S. (2019)
  "Fostering Historical Research in CSCW & HCI." In Conference Companion Publication of the 2019 on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, Austin, TX, USA. [C5]

• Avle, S., Quartey, E., & Hutchful, D. (2018) 'Research on mobile phone data in the global south: Opportunities and challenges'. In Foucault-Welles & Gonzales-Bailon (eds). The Oxford Handbook of Networked Communication. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. [B4]

• Avle, S., Li, D. & Lindtner, S. (2018) 'Responsible IoT after techno-solutionism'. The State of Responsible IoT 2018. Things Con.

• Lindtner, S. & Avle, S. (2017) 'Tinkering with governance: Technopolitics and the economization of citizenship'. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Volume 1, Issue CSCW December 2017, Article No.: 70, pp 1–18. [C4]

• Avle, S., Lindtner, S., & Williams, K. (2017) ‘How methods make designers’. Proceedings of SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '17), pp 472- 483. [C3]

• Avle, S. (2016) ‘“Radio locked on @citi973”: FM radio audiences on Twitter’. In Willems, W. & Mano, W. (eds) Everyday media culture in Africa: Audiences and Users, pp 161 - 179. London, New York: Routledge. [B2]

• Avle, S. & Lindtner, S. (2016) 'Design(ing) "here" and "there": Tech Entrepreneurs, Global Markets, and Reflexivity in Design Processes'. In Proceedings of SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '16), pp 2233 - 2245. [C2]

• Avle, S. (2015) ‘Situating Ghana’s new media industry: liberalization and transnational entrepreneurship’. In Halegoua, G. and Aslinger B. (eds) Locating Emerging Media, pp 123-138. London; New York: Routledge. [B1]

• Avle, S. & Adunbi, O. (2015) ‘Whose freedom? Which information? – Discourses on Freedom of Information policies’. Journal of Information Policy, Vol. 5 (2015), pp 179-203. [J4]

• Avle, S. (2014)'Articulating and enacting development: Skilled returnees in Ghana's ICT industry'. Information Technologies & International Development 10 (4), pp 1-13. [J3]

• Avle, S. (2012) 'Flux mondiaux médias et démocraties en développement: Le cas du Ghana'. Afrique Contemporaine 2011/4 (n° 240), pp 93-107 [Translation of Global Flows]. [J2]

• Avle, S. (2011) 'Global flows, media, and developing democracies: The Ghanaian case'. Journal of African Media Studies 3:1, pp 7-23. [J1]

Other Writing

• Avle, S. (2021) Side by side: Tech collaborations in Shenzhen. Hardware Things 2021, p10-11.
• Avle, S. & Fox, S. (2021) Tech labor: A new Interactions forum. ACM Interactions, 28(4), 24-26.
• Avle, S. (2019) ‘Meet Josh Opoku Agyemang’. Tech + Africa.
• Avle, S. & Asuzu, C. (2018) 'Hack, Make, Sell'. Africa is a Country. Digital Africa Series.
• Avle, S. (2018) ‘Meet an African maker/ tech entrepreneur’. Tech + Africa.
• Avle, S. (2018) ‘Why Tech + Africa’. Tech + Africa.
• Pearson, B.A. J & Avle, S. (2016) 'Chasing the "Bottom Billion": Tech companies and the selling of global connectivity.'
• Avle, S. (2015) 'Networked radio: The role of social media interactivity in radio broadcasts in Ghana'.