Katherine Wyers
Information systems researcher specializing in identity categories, information infrastructuring, and social equity
I study the relationship between diversity in society and the categories that are embedded within information systems, and how this relationship affects people’s well-being
Research Topics
- Transgender People
- Social Categorization
- Information Systems
- ICT4D
- Social Equity
Research Methods
- Critical research
- Intersectionality
- Structural Violence
- Information Infrastructures
- Ethnographic methods
- Interpretivism
Qualifications
- PhD Information Systems – University of Oslo (ongoing)
- MA Software Engineering – University of Hertfordshire
- BA (Hons) Management
Professional Experience
- UNESCO Project, Senior Software Engineering Consultant (2021)
- M-FUND Migrant Health NGO, Senior Software Engineer (2019-2021)
- Save The Children Thailand, Data Systems Consultant (2018)
About Me
I’m an information systems researcher with a background in software engineering in the humanitarian and commercial sectors. My research focuses on the relationship between information infrastructures, identity categories, and social equity. I am conducting my PhD research at the Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, where I take a critical, intersectional perspective to investigate how transgender and gender diverse people are affected by identity categories inscribed in dropdown menus, digital technologies, and identity documents, and how this inscription shapes questions of equity in health and welfare programmes. The work is based on ethnographic fieldwork I am conducting in north India with transgender and gender diverse communities.
My PhD research looks are the broad range of gender diversity in India, and its relationship with the categorization of identity within health and welfare information systems. Since 2014, a range of legal and social policies have been introduced across India to support India’s transgender and gender diverse communities. To identify potential beneficiaries, information systems have been gradually updated, moving from a binary male/female gender category to a ternary male/female/transgender category. Through my work, I look at how this updating of gender categories across information systems has impacted on social equity. I explore the various trajectories of information infrastructuring in the ten year period from 2014 to 2024, how the category is being applied in day-to-day tasks by the policy implementers, and how all of these changes are impacting on the social equity of the transgender and gender diverse people who the social policies seek to emancipate. To understand this, I combine ethnographic fieldwork, qualitative interviews, and documents that recount the changes that took place within this period.
I take a critical, intersectional perspective on research. I believe that research should be conducted with a view to making a positive change, and that is extremely important when it concerns people’s wellbeing and access to healthcare. Information systems have a lot of influence on who gets access to which treatment, and it’s important that we understand how they shape social equity.
Publications
Academic Publications
Published
Wyers, K. (2024) Health ICTs and Transgender Health Equity: A Research Agenda, Information Technology for Development, Vol. 30, Iss. 2, Taylor & Francis: London. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02681102.2023.2292740
Wyers, K., Nicholson, B., Russpatrick, S. & Masiero, S. Identity Platforms and Anti-LGBTQ+ Legislation: Implications for Safeguarding Personal Data. Joint IFIP Conference 2023, Hyderabad, India, December 2023, Springer: London, UK.
Wyers, K. (2022) ‘Leaving No-one Behind? A Research Agenda for Queer Issues in ICT4D’, IFIP WG 9.4 Freedom and Social Inclusion in a Connected World, Lima, Peru, 25-27 May 2022, Springer: London, UK.
Submitted for publication
Stelmaszak, M., Masiero, S., Wyers, K., Aaltonen, A. & Wagner, E. Making personal data personal: Using fuzzy data objects to represent gender identity. Information & Organization (submitted April 2023)
Other Publications
Wyers, K. (2023) Systemic Trans Exclusion: How can Health ICTs Make a Difference? Centre for Gender Research, University of Oslo, https://www.stk.uio.no/english/research/pride/systemic-trans-exclusion.html
Melteig E. (2024) En lovendring i India i 2014 sikret transpersoner flere rettigheter. En forsker har sett på utslagene, Titan Forskningsnyheter om realfag og teknologi: University of Oslo, https://www.titan.uio.no/livsvitenskap/2024/transpersoner-har-en-lang-historie-i-india.-lovend.html
Conference Presentations and Panel Discussions
Wyers, K., Vandeskog, H. (2023) How plural understandings of gender diversity shape transgender health access in Himachal Pradesh, India. IPATHCON2023, Annual conference of the Association for Transgender Health India, Delhi, India, Nov 2023.
Wyers, K. (2023) Social Categories and Transgender Health Equity: Perspectives from north India, Human Development and Capability Association Conference, Sofia, Bulgaria, Sept 2023.
Wyers, K. (2022) Health Equity, Information Communication Technologies, and Transgender People. IPATHCON2022, Annual conference of the Association for Transgender Health India, Delhi, India, Nov 2022.
Wyers, K. (2022) Understanding healthcare choices for transgender populations: How do digital interventions mediate questions of health equity?, Human Development and Capability Assocation Conference, Antwerp, Belgium, 19-22 Sept 2022.
Kuczyńska Z., Wyers K. (2022) Queering Data Justice: Using Archival Methodologies to Recover Transgender Histories in Healthcare Data, European Feminist Research Conference, Milan, Italy, 15-17 June 2022.
Wyers K., Masiero S. (2022) Disrupting Transphobia in the Design of Digital Platforms, European Feminist Research Conference, Milan, Italy, 15-17 June 2022.
Wyers K. (2022) Queering Scholarship in ICT4D: Shaping Research Methodologies for Greater LGBTQ+ Visibility, IFIP WG 9.4 Freedom and Social Inclusion in a Connected World, Lima, Peru, 25-27 May 2022. [abstract pdf]
Wyers K. (2020) Keeping patient-data safe: Implementing a secure instant messaging network at a Myanmar healthcare clinic, DSAI Annual Conference, Dublin, Ireland, 29 October 2020.
Guest Lectures
Feminist and Queer Research in ICT for Development. ICT4D – Building a Better World?, University of Oslo, Norway, Oct 2023.
Leaving No-one Behind? Issues of Gender and Gender Queerness in ICT for Development ICT4D – Building a Better World?, University of Oslo, Norway, Sept 2022.
My Qualifications
I have a diverse set of qualifications. I began with an undergraduate degree in management. In my med-20s, I studied jazz saxophone, and contemporary classical composition, two passions of mine. While studying composition, I had the chance to develop AI-driven software systems that generated real-time algorithmic music in response to their surrpundings. During this time, I founded my first startup to support the Irish music scene. Later, I studied a masters degree in software engineering at the University of Hertfordshire, where I was commended by the Board of Examiners with an award for ‘Outstanding Distinction’. I am now conducting my PhD Research in information systems at the University of Oslo.
PhD Information Systems (ongoing)
- 2021-2025: University of Oslo, Norway
- Queer and Transgender Issues in Information Systems
MSc Software Engineering
- 2017-2019: University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
- Commendation: Outstanding Distinction
- Nominated: Student of the Year
- Thesis: Clinicom: Sustainable Open-source Instant Messaging for Healthcare in Developing Countries
MA Contemporary Composition
- 2009-2011: Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland
- Automated Music Composition System using Machine Learning
BA (Hons) Jazz Performance
- 2005-2008: Newpark Academy of Music, Dublin
BA (Hons) International Hospitality Management
- 2000-2004: Cardiff Metropolitan University, United Kingdom
Professional Experience
I have been an IT project manager and Software engineer for over ten years, starting my career as the sounder of a commercial startup company. In early 2017, I made a career-change to focus on software systems for development. I based based in Myanmar and Thailand for four years working with a range of different organisations, from international NGOs to grassroots projects in health and Education focussing on long-term sustainability by improving the current systems and building local skills for capacity-building.
- 2022: Senior Software Engineer and Trainer, Consultancy
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- OpenEMIS UNESCO project, South Africa
- 2019-2022: Senior Software Engineer
- M-FUND Migrant Health NGO, Thailand and Myanmar
- 2018-2019: Senior Software Engineer, Shoklo Malaria Research Centre, Thailand
- 2017-2018: Data-systems Consultant
- Save The Children Thailand
- Burma Children Medical Fund
- World Education, Thailand/Myanman
- 2014-2016: Founder and Chief Technical Officer
- Melody College, Live Online Music School
- 2011-2013: Founder and Engineer
- DublinJazz Web-marketing Platform
Projects
- OpenValid
- Open-source verification and validation module for MS Access
- Designed for data-entry in low-resource healthcare settings
- https://github.com/KatherineWyers/openvalid-msaccess
- Clinicom Instant Messaging Network for Global Health
- Sustainable Open-source Instant Messaging for Healthcare teams in Developing Countries
Blog
PhD Abstract
Understanding the consequences of identity category change in government information infrastructure India’s transgender category 2014-2024From a...
Uganda’s Anti-homosexuality Act 2023: Implications for Safeguarding LGBTQ+ Personal Data
This week, the Ugandan president signed an anti-LGBTQ+ law that has been condemned as a ‘permission slip for hate and dehumanization’. The law...
Planning for sustainable data-management projects in developing countries
What is sustainability in development projects? Sustainability is a term that’s often used nowadays. It...