Background • Dorothy Howard

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Dorothy Howard is a researcher, archivist, and open technology advocate. She has organized around digital justice, governance, and human rights, and open source maintainer labor, worked in nonprofits, and published peer-reviewed research and case studies, funded by the Ford Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the University of California, the Processing Foundation, and the Wikimedia Foundation. Dorothy is always considering fundamental questions in the humanities about how to have a good life, and engages with feminist methodologies, disability studies, and the ethics of care, which invite us to listen to the body as a source of information and moral guidance.

Dorothy started a business Howard Archives specializing in archival solutions for cross-media, cultural heritage projects, historical memory, public digital infrastructure, and open collaboration. She is currently taking classes at Pratt Institute, School of Information for an MLIS, Archives Specialization. From 2013 to 2016, Dorothy worked as a Wikipedian in Residence at the Metropolitan New York Library Council and archival appraisal assistant at the Jean-Noël Herlin Archive Project.

Dorothy is also available for consulting on open technology, research, and organizational sustainability. Dorothy's interest in Wikipedia started when she wrote a paper on the history of the Western encyclopedia during her B.A. in History from Reed College in 2013 and she has been a Wikipedian and researcher since. Dorothy has an M.A. in Communication from the University of California, San Diego, and worked in the Feminist Labor Lab and Design Lab. She is currently completing her dissertation for her Ph.D. Dorothy has gravitated towards science and technology studies (STS), the histories of computing, and feminist anthropology, studying the dynamics of well-being and knowledge production in sociotechnical communities, the political economy of open technology, and the affective terrains of software development. Dorothy is trained in multiple qualitative and historical methods including: ethnography (grounded theory, participant observation, interviews), content analysis, and archival research. Her current research includes a project, "Wikimedian Neurotribes: Examining Discourse About Neurodivergence Among Wikimedians", funded by the Wikimedia Foundation.

Dorothy has also worked as a grant writer, web designer, and teacher's assistant, as well as a farm worker and supervisor, fish and cheese monger (separately), gas station clerk, barista, server, movie theater attendant, and tutor.

Dorothy is also a cross-genre writer with publications that include experimental essays, poetry, short stories, and texts accompanying art exhibitions and music releases. Contact if you are interested in commissioning a text. Dorothy is the author of the chapbook Troll (Inpatient Press, 2015) and has published works in: Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Canadian Art, Rhizome, DIS, and The New Inquiry, among others. Dorothy edits the Arachne Webzine, an experimental publishing project.