Values
Technology should expand human agency.
My work is guided by a simple idea: people should have the knowledge, tools, and institutional power to shape the technologies and organizations that shape their lives.
01 / Social equity
Digital Inequality
Digital inequality is not only about who has a device or an internet connection. It is also about who can learn, create, speak, and exercise meaningful control within digital society.
My scholarship and teaching center people who are often treated as an afterthought in technological design. I am interested in the ways marginalized communities use technology to build knowledge and opportunity—and in the barriers that prevent them from doing so fully.
Affordable tools and practical knowledge should be available beyond elite institutions and well-resourced communities.
People should be able to understand, adapt, and choose their technologies—not merely accept the limits built into them.
The lived experiences of communities historically overlooked in tech spaces should help define the questions we ask and the systems we build.
02 / Open technology
Free and Open Source Technologies
Open-source technologies make the workings of digital systems more transparent. They lower financial barriers, support experimentation, and give users greater freedom to make technology serve their own purposes.
I use open tools across my research, teaching, writing, and public scholarship. They help me analyze social data, teach cybercriminology through hands-on practice, build public-facing resources, and retain more control over the systems behind my work.
Everyday work
Linux · Firefox · LibreOffice
Research and AI
R · Python · Anaconda
Cybercriminology
Autopsy · Tor · open-source intelligence tools
Public creation
WordPress · Audacity · OpenShot
In development / Public website
COST
Where open tech meets open values.
COST will be a public-facing website about free and open-source technologies as they are used in everyday life. Rooted in Hampton Roads, it will showcase student work and translate technical knowledge into practical resources for people too often left out of mainstream technology conversations.
- Student-led research
- Research explainers
- Practical how-to guides
03 / University life
Academic Freedom and Shared Governance
Academic freedom gives scholars room to follow evidence, teach honestly, and pursue difficult questions. Shared governance gives faculty a meaningful voice in the institutions responsible for that work.
I support these AAUP principles through service, advocacy, and institution-building. For me, they are not abstract traditions. They are the conditions that allow universities to serve students and the public with independence and integrity.
Officer service supporting faculty advocacy, academic freedom, and a stronger chapter at Old Dominion University.
Executive committee service connecting campus concerns to statewide faculty advocacy.
Development of oduaaup.org as a public home for chapter news, resources, organization, and action.
Openness is most meaningful when it gives people greater power over their tools, their institutions, and their futures.