I am a PhD student at the Human Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon. Using a mixed-methods approach, I research social justice activism on Twitter. I apply a dramaturgical lens to investigate the relationship between on-the-ground movement processes and networked protests. My research interests also include theatre-based design methods, and playtesting methods for game and experience design. With a background in theatre, I am interested in marrying elements of dramaturgy, play and performance with participatory and community-based design methods to support more equitable relationships with collaborators and the design of technology grounded in social justice principles.
After 10 years of co-running Writ Large Press, an independent literary press in Los Angeles dedicated to making publishing accessible, amplifying diverse voices, and creating public literary events that call for participation by and the preservation of our local cultures and communities, my partners, Chiwan Choi and Peter Woods, and I merged with Entropy Magazine and Civil Coping Mechanisms in 2018 to form The Accomplices. In the summers of 2014 and 2017, Writ Large Press and collaborators filled Los Angeles with 90 consecutive days of literary and cultural programming featuring the vitality and diversity of the city.
I have an MFA from NYU’s Tisch Department of Dramatic Writing and a BA from Yale University, where I was on the executive board of the Yale Children’s Theater. I have written and/or directed numerous plays in educational and community settings and nonprofit theatre. I now have 20(!) years of teaching experience as a teaching artist, a middle and high school classroom teacher, and currently as a university teaching assistant. As a program director and writing mentor at Will Power to Youth, Shakespeare Center LA, for over a decade, I have helped teach, manage and design this exemplary national-award-winning arts education and employment program.
jochoi at cs dot cmu dot edu
