Soledad Magnone produced a preliminary report immediately after FAccT 2022 and expects to have a published work later in 2023.
Studies around ‘meetingness’ have brought to the fore ways in which conferences are key sites to mobilise and strengthen social goods. Furthermore, these have been pointed out as spaces to shape and influence policies. This study analyses the possibilities and shortcomings of hybrid conferences, online and in-person. To this end, it focuses on the FAccT 2022 edition using a Participatory Action Research. This methodology engaged different FAccT community members, especially ones often excluded from decision-making processes, to reflect about their personal objectives, the effectiveness of FAccT’s hybrid model to achieve these, and the opportunities of PAR to design future iterations oriented by social justice. At pre-post pandemic times, tailored hybrid formulas have the potential to fulfill the wants and needs of the various conference actors. Results of this experience are insights on how hybrid conferences can build in diversity, equity and inclusion, and minimise divisions in virtual and in-person tracks that reinforce social structures of privilege.
Lauren Quigley has completed a literature review and developed a survey to collect additional data on intersectional tech identity. Emnet Tafesse conducted over ten interviews with participants and organizers and collected at least 85 survey responses on DEIA at AI and ML conferences.
Together, Emnet Tafesse and Lauren Quigley collaborated on a CRAFT taking place at FAccT 2023: FUBU: Community and Care in Conferences and Research. Additionally they are looking toward hosting a virtual event to dig deeper on some of these outcomes and issues.
Community care and inclusion is more than a DEI initiative and topic of discussion, but an opportunity for FAccT as a conference and community of researchers to deliver on the good intentions of our work in fairness, accountability and transparency. This interactive workshop will engage participants in reflective practice, provide an opportunity to connect among activists, artists, and justice-centered practitioners, and collaboratively explore ways to incorporate community care into FAccT research and conference experiences. This workshop will focus on creating space that is warm, inclusive, and caring for Black, Indigenous and People of Color as contributors to the field and the epistemologies and research topics that we are uniquely positioned to lead.
Maria Goldshtein and Rod D. Roscoe conducted over 20 interviews to produce recommendations for demographic collection, allowing individuals to better self-identify and highlight important components of their identity and experiences. Preliminary results were included in grant proposals and papers are in submission.
Disclaimer: The ACM FAccT DEI Scholars program seeks to fund scholars to conduct research that deepens our collective understanding of and advances DEI initiatives. The research conducted by DEI scholars is independent and neither ACM nor FAccT has any privileged access to the data collected.