Project at HIAS

Sustainable AI Futures: Decolonizing technology research and design

Rachel Smith’s work at HIAS advances decolonizing research on artificial intelligence (AI) towards more human, equitable and sustainable AI futures based on situated values, lifeworlds and knowledges. The research explores social phenomena of automation, computation and technological worldmaking in diverse everyday life practices, across the global north(s) and south(s). The project advances cutting-edge research in Design Anthropology through future-oriented, participatory, and experimental approaches – for novel theories and methodologies for inclusive computational futures.

Her Tandem Partner is Gertraud Koch, Professor of Cultural Anthropology and Head of the Institute of European Ethnology/ Cultural Anthropology at the University of Hamburg.

Biography

Rachel Smith is Associate Professor at the Dept. of Digital Design and Information Studies, Aarhus University. She directs the Centre for Digital and Green Transformation in Cities and Communities (DIGTCOM), leading research for the digital, social and green transformation of society. She holds a PhD in Anthropology and works across design and technology research in global contexts.

Rachel Smith’s research focuses on relations between emerging digital technology, everyday life, and social change. Through longterm transdisciplinary projects, she engages with exploring and transforming everyday practices and co-designing inclusive technologies and futures. Smith works across sustainable transitions and participatory AI, automated future urban mobility, memory making and decolonization, and computational empowerment for future generations. Her research contributes to theoretical and methodological advancements in Design Anthropology, Participatory Design and Human-Computer Interaction. She has co-authored and edited 16 international volumes and journal special issues, and 100+ peer reviewed publications, including Routledge International Handbook of Contemporary Participatory Design (2025, Routledge), Future Memory Practices (2024, Routledge), and Design Anthropological Futures (2016, Routledge).

Rachel Smith‘s HIAS Fellowship is provided by the Joachim Herz Foundation.