Katta Spiel and their team received the Best Poster Award at the 26th ACM Conference On Computer-Supported Cooperative Work And Social Computing in Minneapolis, USA from October 14 to 18, 2023. Their paper How to Ethically Engage Fat People in HCI Research provides analysis and recommendations to counteract anti-fatness and engage fat people in computer science research.

Abstract

How we research and represent people and communities that may be marginalized or vulnerable is a highly relevant question for our research practices. One particular group that has received some recent attention from HCI and CSCW researchers is fat people and, relatedly, anti-fatness. However, more work is needed to understand how to ethically engage in research with fat people–for example, in studying online communities or designing technology. Toward this goal, we provide a brief introduction to fat people, fat activism, and fat oppression so researchers may understand the social, political, and historical landscape in which research with and about fat people takes place. Based on empirical findings from an interview study, we then provide recommendations for researchers wishing to engage fat people in future research.

About Katta Spiel

Katta Spiel is an Assistant Professor for Critical Access in Embodied Computing at TU Wien Informatics. They research marginalized perspectives on embodied computing through a lens of Critical Access. Their work informs design and engineering supporting the development of technologies that account for the diverse realities they operate in. In their interdisciplinary collaborations with neurodivergent and/or nonbinary peers, they conduct explorations of novel potentials for designs, methodologies, and innovative technological artifacts. They have recently received an ERC Starting Grant for their project ACCESSTECH. They received their PhD in 2018 from TU Wien and after a year at KU Leuven, they conducted postdoctoral work as an FWF-Hertha Firnberg Scholar, also at TU Wien. Their work has received several international and national awards, including the SICGHI 2020 Outstanding Dissertation Award as well as the Förderungspreis der Stadt Wien in der Sparte Mathematik, Informatik, Naturwissenschaft, Technik in 2022.

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