This post is part of the Meet the ETCL Team series, which introduces the wonderful people who work in the lab and who have worked with us in the past.
Talya has been working
as a graduate research assistant at the Lab since Fall 2020. She contributes to the lab’s social media presence and online communications, manages and updates website content, contributes to planning conferences and events, and assists with various other projects.
Talya is a Master’s student in Sociology and Cultural, Social, and Political Thought (CSPT) at UVic. Talya is interested in technology and social life and takes an interdisciplinary approach to her research, merging sociology, technology and society, digital humanities, and computer science. Her thesis work is on AI capitalism and how consumer AI technologies impact people’s interactions and relationships with technological entities. Some of her other research interests include the democratization and decentralization of digital media and technology, digital knowledge commons and open social scholarship, platform capitalism, and contemporary social theory.
During her undergraduate degree at UVic, Talya assisted Janni Aragon, one of the ETCL’s Open Knowledge Practicum Fellows, in a research project that looked at Twitter sentiment for political leaders in Canada and the United States. This project led her to get started as a research assistant at the ETCL.
Working at the lab has given Talya the chance to get familiar with the fantastic work being done to promote and facilitate open social scholarship and apply her skills. She enjoys working and learning simultaneously in a collaborative environment that is rich with unique talents and knowledge.
When she’s not in the lab or doing her research, Talya loves hiking and backpacking to explore Vancouver Island. She’s especially fond of the Juan de Fuca Trail. She also enjoys rock climbing, ceramics, and painting and has just started experimenting with podcast creation in her free time.