Mission and goals
We are prototyping a website and initial data visualizations and analyses and will keep expanding the website’s capacity iteratively. This project has involved students in conceptualization and execution from its beginnings in 2017. As of 2020, this project is also a collaboration with the Digital Publishing and Scholarship Studio at the University of Iowa’s library.
Our staff
Louise Seamster, Director
Louise Seamster is an Assistant Professor in Sociology and Criminology and African American Studies at the University of Iowa. She writes about racial politics and urban development, emergency financial management, debt, and the myth of racial progress. She earned a Ph.D. in Sociology from Duke University and an MA in Liberal Studies at the New School for Social Research.
Matthew Butler, Developer
Matthew Butler is a Research Manager and Senior Developer at the Digital Scholarship & Publishing Studio where he works on such projects as DIY History, the Intermedia Research Initiative, the International Dada Archive, the Fluxus Digital Archives, and the William Morris Archive. He is an MFA graduate and former Bodine Fellow in the Intermedia Program in the School of Art & Art History at Iowa where he studied with Hans Breder. With over 20 years of professional experience in libraries, Matthew has collaborated with dozens of scholars, integrating emerging technology with their research and publications.
Levity EA Smith, Research Associate
Levity EA Smith is a 2020 graduate from The University of Iowa, where he received a B.A. in public health and sociology, a certificate in social science analytics, and a minor in Chinese. As an undergraduate and during his research gap year, Smith has contributed to projects concerning social epidemiology and the sociology of public health inequalities. He is committed to addressing the intersectional social justice needs of communities suffering from health disparities.
Chad Rhym, Research Associate
Chad Rhym is a 2019 graduate of Morehouse College and is currently a 2nd-year graduate student in the University of Iowa’s Department of Sociology and Criminology. His research interests include race and ethnicity, social inequality, political sociology, and civic engagement.
Hannah Zadeh, Research Associate
Hannah Zadeh is a fourth-year undergraduate student at the University of Iowa studying sociology on the pre-med track. They are interested in studying social epidemiology, political and public sociology, race/ethnicity, and science and technology studies.
Abby Rinaldi, Research Associate
Abby Rinaldi is a research associate specializing in web development and visualization design. They received their MA in Journalism from the University of Iowa. Before pursuing academic research, Rinaldi worked as a newspaper journalist for six years. Their current research focuses on computational aesthetics and esoteric programming.
Carolyn Hoemann, Research Associate
Carolyn Hoemann is a graduate student at the University of Iowa College of Public Health. She studies health policy with a special interest in how racism and capitalism shape policy implementation, medical and public health institutions, and the healthcare workforce.
Theodore Byrnes, Research Associate
Theodore Byrnes is…
Selveyah Gamblin, Research Associate
Selveyah Gamblin….
Former Team Members
Siyanda Mohutsiwa, Research Associate
Siyanda Mohutsiwa is a doctoral student at the University Of Chicago, a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop, and a Pan Africanist theorist of note.
Terry Saul III, Research Associate
Terry Saul III is currently a 4th-year undergraduate student in the University of Iowa’s College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, where he will be earning a degree in Business Studies-Ethics and Values and a minor in Philosophy. Saul’s research interests include healthcare inequalities, emergency financial management, insurance systems, and debt.