Dr. Shamika Klassen

Dr. Shamika Klassen (MInfoSci’22; PhDI’24) 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.

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.

She went on to pursue a Ph. D. from the Information Science department at the University of Colorado Boulder advised by Dr. Casey Fiesler. She is the first Black person to receive a Ph. D. from the department.

Her dissertation topic was, "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, DIS and CHI.

Dr. Klassen is currently a User Experience Researcher at Google. Outside of her professional life, she fills her cup by knitting, playing games or consuming media of all kinds, making smash books, writing letters, and connecting with friends, family, and her community