Catherine D'Ignazio (also known as kanarinka) is an American professor, artist, and software developer who focuses on feminism and data literacy. She is the director of the Data + Feminism lab at MIT. D'Ignazio is best known for her

hackathon A hackathon (also known as a hack day, hackfest, datathon or codefest; a portmanteau of hacking and marathon) is an event where people engage in rapid and collaborative engineering over a relatively short period of time such as 24 or 48 hours. Th ...

s, such as "Make the Breast Pump Not Suck", and for her book ''Data Feminism'', co-authored with Lauren Klein.

Early life and education

D'Ignazio was born in

Chapel Hill, North Carolina Chapel Hill is a town in Orange, Durham and Chatham counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Its population was 61,960 in the 2020 census, making Chapel Hill the 17th-largest municipality in the state. Chapel Hill, Durham, and the state ca ...

and grew up in North Carolina, Virginia, Alabama, and Michigan. Her father,

Fred D'Ignazio Fred D'Ignazio (born January 6, 1949) is an American author, educator, and television commentator. He was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania and is considered to be one of the world's leading pioneers in multimedia-based education. From 1972 to 1976 ...

, is an American author, educator, and television commentator. D'Ignazio received her Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in International Relations from Tufts University. She went on to receive a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Studio Art, Design and Theory from Maine College of Art and a Master of Science (M.S.) in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT in 2014.

Career

D'Ignazio works as an assistant professor at MIT and has published several works in her field of study as well as an acclaimed book, ''Data Feminism''. She has organized several women's health hackathons, including "Make the Breast Pump Not Suck," which has now been featured in the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...

's exhibition, ''Designs for Different Futures''. She has also worked on news recommendation systems, and different types of data visualization. D'Ignazio started to work in software development and taught for seven years in the Digital + Media graduate program at Rhode Island School of Design. She then moved on to work in the Journalism Department at

Emerson College Emerson College is a private college with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts. It also maintains campuses in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and Well, Limburg, Netherlands ( Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a ...

, as an Assistant Professor of Data Visualization and Civic Media. Having years of experience as a professor, she then became an Assistant Professor of Urban Science and Planning in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT. D'Ignazio maintains this role today, and also acts as the Director of the Data + Feminism Lab.

Works

* with Lauren Klein, ''Data Feminism'' (2020) * edited with Nanna Bonde Thylstrup, Annie Ring, and Kristin Veel, '' Uncertain Archives: Critical Keywords for Big Data'' (2020)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:D'Ignazio, Catherine Date of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American non-fiction writers American feminist writers American software engineers People from Chapel Hill, North Carolina Tufts University alumni Maine College of Art alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni MIT School of Architecture and Planning faculty Rhode Island School of Design faculty Emerson College faculty Year of birth missing (living people)