Shamika Klassen
PhD Student
Information Science

Shamika Klassen is a doctoral candidate in the Information Science department at the University of Colorado Boulder advised by Professor Casey Fiesler. She graduated from Stanford University with a degree in African and African American studies.  Afterward, she moved to New York City to serve a year with AmeriCorps and stayed for eight. During that time, she earned a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in the city of New York focusing her studies on technology, ethics and social justice issues.  While there, she also developed technowomanism as an ethical framework rooted in the womanist tradition and the wisdom of Black women. Continuing that thread of academic inquiry, she now explores how Black people create, appropriate, innovate and imagine technology to survive and thrive.  The topic of her dissertation is, "How do Black women, femmes, and non-binary people envision the future of technology?" She has published collaborative work in GROUP, SIGCSE, CSCW, Social Media + Society, and CHI.  Shamika fills her cup by connecting with friends, family, and her community, knitting, both playing games and consuming media of all kinds, making smash books and writing letters.