We are thrilled to welcome a new faculty member in the department this fall! Watch out for classes Dr. Kavita Dattani will be teaching in Winter and Spring quarters, including: Gender and Feminism in an International Context; Digital Capitalism and Data Colonialism; and Introduction to Gender and Gig Work.
Here is an introduction to everything that Dr. Dattani will bring to GWSS, in her own words:
I am a feminist researcher of digital technologies and data. Broadly, my work seeks to uncover the ways in which data-driven digital technologies are enabling new forms of violence and marginality and the potentials for more progressive data futures.
My research has spanned different kinds of data-driven technologies. My PhD thesis, which I completed in 2022 in Human Geography at Queen Mary University of London, focused on the use of digital dating apps (Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, TrulyMadly) among women and gender minorities in Mumbai against the backdrop of a fast digitising and nationalising India. I showed how these platforms’ algorithmic architectures and design features are built to maintain class and caste endogamy, which was also co-produced by dating app users’ digital dating habits and practices and dating app companies’ marketing campaigns. In this work I use the term “data-bility” as a double entendre to argue that how dateable one is on a dating app, relies on data in many forms. I am currently writing up this work for publication.
I have conducted research on gender and platform/gig work in New Delhi, and on the global Fairwork project at the Oxford Internet Institute (University of Oxford), where I recently completed a Postdoctoral research fellowship. These projects show how prominent location-based digital labour platforms are often designed to be used by workers who are cisgender men and have exclusionary consequences for women and gender minorities, which are compounded for those in intersectionally marginalised positions. I have an article on this work published in the journal City. My recent co-authored Fairwork report on Gender and Platform Work: Beyond Techno-Solutionism was the first of its kind in illuminating some of the gendered exclusions inherent in location-based platform work across the world. My co-author and I discussed the findings of this report on the podcast Macrodose.
Another strand of my work looks at the links between biometric and financial technology systems, namely India’s Aadhaar and India Stack. I have mapped the role of different stakeholder groups (corporate and government) and their motives in creating big-data systems. I show how revolving door networks enable the production of these initiatives, which create corporate winners and extend colonial data practices. This research has been published in Area and the Journal of Cultural Economy.
My teaching speaks directly to my research interests, and I have taught as a graduate teaching assistant and lecturer on courses that span themes of digital capitalism, data politics, and gender and feminisms.
Outside of academic research and teaching, I sit on the Board of Trustees for a nonprofit in London called Bread and Roses. We run floristry training workshops to support women from refugee backgrounds to rebuild their lives in the UK. I am also an anti-oppression facilitator and have conducted over 140 hours of anti-oppression workshops with numerous organisations across the world. I also enjoy lifting heavy weights!