The fantastic author, librarian and activist Melissa Morrone [@InfAgit] interviewed me to discuss technology, feminism, decentralized networks of power, and liberation-focused approaches to teaching.
Read the whole interview here: http://libraryjuicepress.com/blog/?p=4778.
A few choice quotes:
MM: can you talk more about that in your approach towards technology and intimidation?
HD: This plays into both a feminist and a liberationist approach to the world in general, where I find technology to have this masculinist, over-logical, kind of ableist edge where it’s like, “You can build anything! You just have to build it like this!†And then there’s this aggro sort of builder culture in technology that I think a lot of people find intimidating, and I found intimidating at times. I really want to not tell people that they can’t do the work of the thing they want to build, but to actually be thoughtful and inclusive about the way in which I’m walking with people as they learn.
“When folks don’t want to know how something happens, then it’s much, much easier to be manipulated or given disinformation, or to accept that the only way to interface with it is through corporate or non-autonomous measures”
“I decided to get into professional work in technology in part as a feminist act, because I wanted to do work that was not traditionally associated with women. Also I give a shit about what I work on, what I do. And I wanted to be a bit of a needle, wanted to twist some knives, and it gives me an opportunity to do that. I kind of sit in this space of knowledge that’s in between being a builder/software coder/hacker on one side and a teacher/user/activist/thinker/cultural producer person on the other side.”