fellow

Rachel Charlotte Smith

Hamburg Institute for Advanced Study

Germany
2025-2026
Home institution
Aarhus University
Country of origin (home institution)
Denmark
Discipline(s)
Anthropology and ethnology; Others; Science and technology studies; Sociology
Theme(s)
Artificial Intelligence; Digital Society
Fellowship dates
›
https://www.au.dk/en/rsmith@cc.au.dk
Biography

Rachel Smith is Associate Professor at the Dept. of Digital Design and Information Studies, Aarhus University. She directs the Centre for Digital and Green Transformation in Cities and Communities (DIGTCOM), leading research for the digital, social and green transformation of society. She holds a PhD in Anthropology and works across design and technology research in global contexts.

Research Project
Sustainable AI Futures: Decolonizing technology research and design

Rachel Smith’s work at HIAS advances decolonizing research on artificial intelligence (AI) towards more human, equitable and sustainable AI futures based on situated values, lifeworlds and knowledges. The research explores social phenomena of automation, computation and technological worldmaking in diverse everyday life practices, across the global north(s) and south(s). The project advances cutting-edge research in Design Anthropology through future-oriented, participatory, and experimental approaches – for novel theories and methodologies for inclusive computational futures.

Research Interests:

Participatory AI; Automated Future Urban Mobility; Decolonization; Design Anthropology, Participatory Design; Human-Computer Interaction

Events
Netias Debates series Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies Hamburg Institute for Advanced Study
HIAS, Hamburg and online

Computational Practices for Pluriversal AI

Developments of technology design in artificial intelligent systems, such as generative AI, most prominently large and small language models, pattern recognition, affective computing, automated and predictive data-driven algorithmic systems, are closely linked to Western traditions of technology, knowledge and political economies – designed, through perceptions of 'intelligence',  ‘efficiency’ and ‘growth’. 

The promotion of Western epistemologies, one-size-fits-all technologies, and the transferability of design methods to diverse contexts, continues to advance the Western idea of technology as universal to design and research. Yet, contemporary societal challenges of social injustice, economic inequality, political instability, and ecological crisis pertaining to worldwide concerns, urge us to address local aspects of policy, knowledge, data justice, ownership, and increasing AI divides at different scales. Through interactive sessions, the symposium will collect critical reflections on the position of computational research and cases in diverse global contexts, to advance the diversity, equity and pluriversality of AI technologies.

The symposium addresses how technological developments relate to the formation of more pluriversal futures through core concerns of: (1) state-of-the-art examples of decolonizing practices and epistemologies in and for contemporary technology design and research, (2) theoretical discourses for advancing equitability, responsibility, and sustainability integrated into concrete practices, policies, methodologies, and modes of knowledge production for pluriversal research and technology design in and across global south(s) and global north(s).

About

We cordially invite you to take part in a Netias Debates at HIAS on Nov. 27-28, 2025.
The purpose is to bring together research fellows within NetIAS and adjacent institutions and to instigate network and conversation on Computational Practices for Pluriversal AI, across disciplinary boundaries and global south and north context. 

This Netias Debates is organized by HIAS Fellow Rachel Charlotte Smith in collaboration with the University of Hamburg and the AIAS Institute of Advanced Studies. It follows on from a Netias Debates at Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (Jan. 15, 2025), focusing on computational practices in ‘the rest of the world’, and Bologna (Sept. 10-11, 2024), emphasizing European perspectives on natural language processing within computing.

Organiser

Rachel Charlotte Smith, Aarhus University and Joachim Herz Fellow 25-26 at HIAS

Participants
  • Lukman Abdulrauf, Guest Professor and Senior Fellow at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS), Germany, Professor of Public Law at the University of Ilorin, Nigeria
  • Oluwatoyin Ayodele Ajani, Senior Lecturer in Curriculum and Education Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
  • Christian Ulrik Andersen, Carlsberg Monograph Fellow at Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS), Associate Professor in Digital Design and Information Studies at Aarhus University
  • Manuel Battigaglia, PhD scholar in STS at the University of Bologna, under the supervision of Professor Annalisa Pelizza (Bologna and Aarhus University)
  • Deepshikha Behera, IASH Digital Research Postdoctoral fellow at the University of Edinburgh
  • Louis Fendji, Associate Professor at the University of Ngaoundere, Cameroon, and head of the Centre for Research, Experimentation, and Production at the School of Chemical Engineering and Mineral Industries, fellow at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) and Joachim Herz Alumnus 2024-2025 at the Hamburg Institute for Advanced Study (HIAS)
  • Fausto Giunchiglia, Professor of Computer Science, University of Trento, EURAI fellow, AAIA fellow, member of the Academia Europaea
  • Rikke Hagensby Jensen, Associate Professor at the Department of Digital Design and Information Studies at Aarhus University
  • Haftom Bayray Kahsay, Postdoc fellow at Copenhagen University, Department of Food and Resource Economics (IFRO)
  • Gertraud Koch, Professor at the Institute of Anthropological Studies of Culture and History at the University of Hamburg
  • Nicolas Malevé, artist, visual researcher and data activist, postdoc at SciencesPo/ Medialab in Paris
  • Dikeledi Manyekwane, Ph.D. candidate in Geography at the University of Johannesburg
  • Chris MuAshekele, postdoctoral researcher at Aarhus University
  • Pierre-Alexandre Murena, Junior Professor at the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH)
  • Rachel Charlotte Smith, Associate Professor of Human-Centred Design at the Department of Digital Design and Information Studies at Aarhus University, Joachim Herz Fellow 2025-2026 at HIAS and Associate Fellow at AIAS
  • Victor Vadmand Jensen, PhD fellow at Aarhus University's Department of Clinical Medicine
All details: Computational Practices for Pluriversal AI – HIAS