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., Nicholson, B. (2024) Managing Discretion at the Street Level of Information Systems Use, Proceedings Annual Workshop of the AIS SIG for ICT in Global Development, Bangkok, Thailand, December 15th 2024, AIS Electronic Library. 

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.

Other Publications

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

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

 

Conference Presentations and Panel Discussions

Wyers, K. (2024) Co-design and gender in ICT4D/ICTD Research, ICTD2024 Conference, Nairobi, Kenya, December 22nd 2024. 

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

Dropdown decisions and transgender identities: A simulation applying critical theories to navigate decision-making in ICT design. Masters and PhD level course guest lecture: ICT and Global Inequalities, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway, Sept 2024. 

Feminist and Queer Research in ICT for Development. Masters level course guest lecture: ICT4D – Building a Better World?, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway, Oct 2023.

Being There: Doing fieldwork in challenging environments – Ethnographic fieldwork in north India, University of Oslo, Norway, Oct 2023. 

Leaving No-one Behind? Issues of Gender and Gender Queerness in ICT for Development. Masters level course guest lecture: ICT4D – Building a Better World?, Department of Informatics, 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
    • 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
  • Clinicom Instant Messaging Network for Global Health
    • Sustainable Open-source Instant Messaging for Healthcare teams in Developing Countries

Blog

PhD Abstract

Sep 29, 2024 |

Understanding the consequences of identity category change in government information infrastructure India’s transgender category 2014-2024From a...