Sousou Graduate Fellows Program
2022
Amideast
Ghadeer Awwad
PhD Candidate in Information Science at UMSI
Ghadeer is a PhD Candidate working with Kentaro Toyama. She studies the intersections of technology infrastructure and systems of oppression in Palestine. My work examines how Palestinians actively resist the Israeli occupation using the limited technologies available to them, in contrast to the expansive technological militarism deployed by Israel. My research is grounded in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Science, Technology, and Society (STS), decoloniality, infrastructure, militarism, and social justice.
Publications
- [1] Awwad, G., Toyama, K. (2025). "Digital Infrastructures of Resistance." Work In Progress.
- [2] Awwad, G., Idris, M., Toyama, K. (2025). "Digital Annihilation in Gaza after October 7: Internet Blackouts as Epistemic Violence." Work In Progress.
- [3] Awwad, G., Dunagan, L., Gamba, D., Rayan, T. (2025). "Collective memory and narrative cohesion: A computational study of Palestinian refugee oral histories in Lebanon." [In review]. [link]
- [4] Awwad, G., Toyama, K. (2024). "Digital repression in Palestine." Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI). [link]
Awards
Fulbright Scholarship
2014
The Fulbright Program, U.S. Department of State
European Forum Alpbach Scholarship
2013
European Forum Alpbach
Work Experience
Project Manager
2020 - 2022Birzeit University, Birzeit, Palestine
Leading art projects installations and collaborations with artists.
Teaching
SI 110: Introduction to Information Studies
Fall 2023, Winter 2023, Winter 2024Graduate Instructor Assistant (GSI)
Undergraduate course covering fundamentals of information.