Background • Dorothy Howard
Dorothy Howard is a creative researcher, writer, historian, and open technology advocate with a focus on justice, accountability, transparency, and centering marginalized voices. Dorothy has organized around internet freedom, digital safety and human rights, worked in nonprofits and as a business consultant, and has published research on open source maintainer labor, burnout, and research participation in studies funded by the Ford Foundation and National Science Foundation. Dorothy's business, FMRA specializes in small-scale archival solutions.
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 ever since. 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 has an M.A. in Communication from the University of California, San Diego, and worked in the Feminist Labor Lab and Design Lab. She 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.
Dorothy has also worked as a grant writer, web designer, and teacher's assistant, as well as a farm worker and supervisor, fish seller, gas station clerk, barista, server, movie theater attendant, and tutor.
Dorothy is a cross-genre writer with publications that include experimental essays, poetry, short stories, and texts accompanying art exhibitions and releases. 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. Her next big writing projects include a poetry book and a book of stories along I-5.