investigate. collaborate. communicate.
Information Systems Researcher. LGBTQ+ Advocate. Software Engineer.
About Me
Katherine Wyers is an information systems researcher splitting her time between Oslo and Edinburgh. She writes and speaks about identity categorization, produces academic publications and collaborates on advocacy opportunities. Katherine is an advocate for diverse and inclusive IS research and committed to studying the social consequences of information systems.
I’m an information systems researcher specializing in identity categorization in information infrastructures. Through several projects in writing, speaking, and outreach, I share research with the goal of advocating for engagement with identity categories and the social consequences of information systems. I am particularly interested in the identity categories of sex, sexuality, and gender, and how theses shape the lives of LGBTQ+ people.
I have worked for ten years as an IT project manager in commercial and humanitarian settings. As the founder of a commercial startup, I developed a business to be active in nine countries. In 2017, I made a career change into the humanitarian sector, where I was based in Thailand and Myanmar for four years as a Senior Software Engineer working with international NGOs and grassroots projects in health and education. Together, we developed sustainable data-management systems and local capacity to handle refugee data management. In 2022, I was the Senior Software Engineering Consultant for a large education management information systems in South Africa.
Now, I’m a doctoral fellow at the University of Oslo, where I am in the final stages of completing my PhD studying how gender recategorization in India’s government information infrastructure shapes the lives of India’s transgender and gender diverse people. I also hold an MSc in Software Engineering from the University of Hertfordshire, and an BA in Management from the University of Wales.
Projects
India's Transgender Category
Studying the consequences of identity recategorization in India’s government information infrastructure
LGBTQ+ Identities and Digital Platforms
This project explores the concerns of digital identity platform owners and the challenges of identifying members of LGBTQ+ communities when those identities are vulnerable
DiMIS: Minimum Identity Set
This is an international project to develop a standardized set of identity indicators to collect demographic research data
Publications
Leaving No-one Behind? A Research Agenda for Queer Issues in ICT4D
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IFIP 9.4 Conference 2022
Health ICTs and Transgender Health Equity
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Information Technology for Development journal 2024
Identity Platforms and Anti-LGTBQ+ Legislation
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IFIP 9.4/8.2 Conference 2023
Managing Discretion at the Street Level of Information Systems Use
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SIG GlobDev 2024
Speaking
Upcoming
- May 9th 2025: Are your Digital Records Erasing Identities?: Rethinking Gender Categories in Electronic Health Records – Skyehuspartner Oslo, Norway
Past
- Dec 22nd 2024: Co-design and gender in ICT4D/ICTD Research, ICTD2024 Conference, Nairobi, Kenya.
- Sept 2024: Infrastructuring Gender Identities: The evolving representation of transgender identities in India’s public service information systems 2014-2024, Norwegian Queer Research Group
- July 2024: Dropdown menus, identity categories, and bureaucratic discretion: How street-level bureaucrats shape social equity in welfare programmes, ICT4D North of England Workshop, University of Bradford, UK.
- June 2024: Information Infrastructures and Transgender Equity: How the Indian State’s categorization of ‘transgender’ identities impacts on India’s transgender and gender diverse people, Pride@IFI Dept. of Informatics, University of Oslo.
Testimonials & Featured Clients
Sometimes I write About Writing
What jazz taught me about boundary objects and interdisciplinary collaboration
I’ve been reading a lot about boundary objects lately. Boundary objects are loosely-defined artifacts, categories, or documents that facilitate partial cooperation across communities of practice (Star and Griesemer 1989). The basic concept is that you can have...
AI and memory: Are we letting the machines help us to forget?
I was recently chatting over lunch with a researcher. We were discussing AI, and whether large language models like ChatGPT produce anything new, or whether they only reuse what is already there. Generative large language models determine what word comes next using...
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 imposes the death penalty or life imprisonment for ‘certain same-sex acts’, up to 20 years in prison for ‘recruitment,...