Dr. ir. Cristina Zaga is a transdisciplinary design and assistant professor at Human-Centred Design Group (Design and Production Management department) and at the The DesignLab at the University of Twente.Cristina fosters epistemological and methodological change in the design of human-agent relations towards a social justice, post-human feminist and relational ethics-oriented way of practicing research. To this end, she develops transdisciplinary, and more than human methods, tools, and techniques to mitigate and overcome current de-humanizing and oppressive effects of AI and embodied AI technology.
Together with colleagues at DesignLab of the University of Twente, she co-develops Responsible Futuring, a transdisciplinary approach to tackle societal challenges and futures in collaboration with communities. Within this line of research, she focuses on methods and tools to make thoughts, ideas, and reflections from concrete to tangible through visual scenarios and prototypes and, in so doing, supporting collective reflection and status-quo challenging. Her research’s main fields of application are health (reproductive care and motherhood), and the future of work. Her award-winning research in Human-Robot Interaction and transdisciplinary design has received many accolades such as the Google Women TechMaker Scholar 2018 and the NWO Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award for project, network on Social Justice in Embodied AI. Her design artifacts has been exhibited internationally at conferences and design weeks (Dutch Design Week 2018, 2020, 2022). Cristina is regularly invited as a speaker at events (e.g., TEDx), symposia, and conferences. She regularly publishes in top tier conference venues (CHI conference, HRI conference, CSCW conference).
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