PhD Student Spotlight: Nathan Beard
Nate is pursuing his interests in the history and politics of surveillance and work in sociotechnical systems.
Throughout Nathan (Nate) Beard’s academic and professional career, his work and research has had a unifying theme of supporting under-served and working-class populations. In his early career, with an undergraduate education in business information systems and technology, art, and media, he worked in the international development and social impact startup space in Boulder, Colorado and Nairobi, Kenya. He later earned a Master of Science in Technology, Media, and Society from the University of Colorado, Boulder, during which he discovered his passion for researching issues around privacy, technology, and inequality. This led him to the UMD iSchool. As a PhD student at the iSchool, Nate is pursuing his interests in the history and politics of surveillance and work in sociotechnical systems. This summer Nate is studying digital ethnography and surveillant interfaces under the supervision of Dr. Mols Sauter, and this Fall he will continue researching student-athlete data literacy practices for the Data Everyday project under the supervision of Dr. Danial Greene and Dr. Tamara Clegg. Nate also participates in Dr. Katie Shilton’s Ethics and Values In Design (EViD) Lab, as well as the Safe Data | Safe Families project run by Dr. Mega Subramaniam and Dr. Jessica Vitak. Nate serves on the Graduate Assistantship Advisory Committee (GAAC) to help establish better democratic representation, safe working conditions, livable wages, and other rights for GAs at UMD. Nate enjoys playing soccer, participating in book clubs at the iSchool and elsewhere, and taking the Metro to art and music venues around D.C.