{"688735":{"#nid":"688735","#data":{"type":"event","title":"PhD Thesis Defense Announcement - Jasmine C. Foriest","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETitle:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;The Mechanisms of Muting: Deconstructing the Technology-Mediated Violence of Silence\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EJasmine C. Foriest, MPH, MS\u003Cbr\u003EPhD Candidate in Human-Centered Computing\u003Cbr\u003ESchool of Interactive Computing\u003Cbr\u003EGeorgia Institute of Technology\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.jcforiest.com\/\u0022 title=\u0022http:\/\/www.jcforiest.com\/\u0022\u003Ewww.jcforiest.com\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EDate:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;Wednesday, March 18th, 2026\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ELocation:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;TSRB 217A\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EZoom\u003C\/strong\u003E:\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/gatech.zoom.us\/j\/6153106904?omn=95152746225\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 title=\u0022https:\/\/gatech.zoom.us\/j\/6153106904?omn=95152746225\u0022\u003EForiest\u0026nbsp;Proposal\u0026nbsp;Zoom Link\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETime\u003C\/strong\u003E: 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM EST\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECommittee:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EDr. Amy S. Bruckman (Advisor\/Chair)\u003Cbr\u003ESchool of Interactive Computing\u003Cbr\u003EGeorgia Institute of Technology\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Andrea G. Parker\u003Cbr\u003ESchool of Interactive Computing\u003Cbr\u003EGeorgia Institute of Technology\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Beki Grinter\u003Cbr\u003ESchool of Interactive Computing\u003Cbr\u003EGeorgia Institute of Technology\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Tiffany C. Veinot\u003Cbr\u003ESchool of Information and School of Public Health\u003Cbr\u003EUniversity of Michigan\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Nicki Dell\u003Cbr\u003ECollege of Computing and Information Science\u003Cbr\u003ECornell Tech\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAbstract\u003C\/strong\u003E:\u003Cbr\u003EDigital technologies indisputably mediate and amplify real-world social outcomes, including violence, in novel ways. Yet HCI remains constrained in its approaches to characterizing and remediating these outcomes, owing in part to their latent, structural, and embedded nature within both society and technology. One such hidden harm that precedes violent outcomes is muting \u2014 the systematic silencing of non-dominant groups from venues of discourse where identity, reality, and social change are constructed. Drawing on Muted Group Theory, this dissertation demonstrates that digital muting constitutes a form of technology-mediated violence that obstructs help-seeking behavior and access to the epistemic resources essential for violence prevention.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis dissertation deconstructs three mechanisms through which digital artifacts mediate muting as violence: removal, replication, and reconstruction. First, the removal of information in mass media\u0027s digital representation of suicide creates informational barriers that obstruct help-seeking for at-risk populations. Second, the replication of silencing social dynamics in online community design enables the systematic suppression of gender-based violence survivors. Third, the reconstruction of prejudice and partial knowledge in large language models perpetuates epistemic injustice for survivors of intimate partner violence. Taken together, these studies reveal how digital artifacts both constrain and enable support for those experiencing violence \u2014 and surface a recursive tension in which the very interventions designed to address muting often become mechanisms of it. This dissertation names this fourth mechanism remediation: the process by which responses to harm can reproduce or extend the silencing they sought to interrupt.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis dissertation concludes with a reorientation of HCI\u0027s research practices through what it terms the Heuristics of Harm \u2014 the disciplinary pathways, conceptual conventions, and methodological habits that have structured what the field has been able to see, study, and respond to with regard to digital harm. Across three interrelated domains \u2014 the language of harm, the methods used to measure it, and the assumptions about what or who can perpetrate it \u2014 this dissertation traces how existing conventions have produced unexamined areas that render technology-mediated violence invisible before it can be addressed.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe Mechanisms of Muting: Deconstructing the Technology-Mediated Violence of Silence\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"The Mechanisms of Muting: Deconstructing the Technology-Mediated Violence of Silence"}],"uid":"27707","created_gmt":"2026-03-04 20:55:18","changed_gmt":"2026-03-04 20:57:56","author":"Tatianna Richardson","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2026-03-18T13:30:00-04:00","event_time_end":"2026-03-18T15:30:00-04:00","event_time_end_last":"2026-03-18T15:30:00-04:00","gmt_time_start":"2026-03-18 17:30:00","gmt_time_end":"2026-03-18 19:30:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2026-03-18 19:30:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"location":"TSRB 217A","extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"221981","name":"Graduate Studies"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"100811","name":"Phd Defense"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1788","name":"Other\/Miscellaneous"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78771","name":"Public"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}