I am a visiting professor of civic media in the Department of Comparative Media Studies and Writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I am also a professor of media art at Emerson College and the director of the Engagement Lab. I study the contemporary transformation of cities through the invention and implementation of civic technologies. In a context of limited and diminishing trust, governments, news organizations and NGOs, struggle with aligning the affordances of new technologies with values of equity and justice. My work examines the mechanics of incorporating novel technologies and processes into governance structures. I explore the role of play, care, and empathy in the design of civic processes, and in frameworks for multi-sector collaboration in cities.

In addition to my research, I am a designer, with experience working all over the world co-creating engagement processes and civic games.