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Mar Hicks Recipient of 2024 Research Achievement Award
The University of Virginia announced the 2024 recipients of the Research Achievement Awards, including Associate Professor of Data Science Mar Hicks who was acknowledged for their outstanding contributions to the arts and humanities. The Research Achievement Awards recognize 100 top researchers as the best and brightest of the year based on sponsored funding, publications, and awards.
Hicks, who joined the School of Data Science in 2023, researches the intersections of computing, labor, technology, and queer science and technology studies. Their work examines how societal progress is shaped by competing narratives of social value and economic productivity, revealing how technologies often mask regressive ideals behind claims of being "revolutionary" or "disruptive."
Hicks’s current research highlights how gender and sexuality expose hidden dynamics in technology, reshaping the history of computing through the experiences of women and LGBTQIA+ individuals. Their award-winning book Programmed Inequality (MIT Press, 2017) explores how the British computing industry faltered by sidelining women workers. Hicks is also co-editor of Your Computer Is On Fire (MIT Press, 2021), a collection addressing critical flaws in high-tech infrastructures. They are now working on a book about the gendered nature of digital infrastructure and the role of queerness and resistance in the history of computing.
The Award for Excellence in the Arts & Humanities recognizes a faculty member for their outstanding contributions to arts and humanities. It is intended for faculty who are creating new knowledge and creative works in their discipline that are acknowledged by their peers as meeting the highest standards in their fields. Often the work and its impact on society will have the potential of becoming a gold standard in the field.
Recipients of the 2024 Research Achievement Awards will be honored next month at a celebration with the President, Provost, and Vice President for Research.
