These days, there are a bunch of queer folks who do research in the broadly-defined Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) space. Queer HCI is becoming an established part of the larger field, both in terms of research on and with queer populations and in terms of employing queering theories and methods. At the same time, queer researchers are making important progress in multiple areas beyond Queer HCI proper, while more and more allies try to find the right ways to support their queer colleagues and engage in queer work. Queer HCI is expanding rapidly – and for the third year in a row, we’re going to meet as a community. For solidarity, for planning, for answers and for important new questions: welcome to the 2021 CHI Queer Special Interest Group, Queer in HCI: Strengthening the Community of LGBTQIA+ Researchers and Research.
Following insights generated at multiple ACM events over the past two years, we have identified two pressing issues for Queer HCI, which we will use to start our discussion:
- How do we better support queer people doing HCI research when they are not working with a queer population?
- How do we better support member-researchers leading Queer HCI while including researchers beyond the queer community?
This Special Interest Group aims to directly address these challenges by convening a broad community of queer researchers and allies, working not only on explicitly-queer topics, but across a broad range of HCI topics. Help us decide what to talk about and let us know what’s important to you right now via our Idea Padlet, and then email queer.hci.sig@gmail.com for an invitation to join in on ongoing asychnchronous discussion leading up to our live event on May 10. For full details, check out the How to Participate page. Importantly, this year, both folks who identify as queer and those who are allies are welcome, so long as everyone respects the Code of Conduct. If you want to read more about the SIG and the inspiration behind it, check out the full extended abstract.
Cheers, queers (and friends)!
Queer in HCI 