Kainen Bell

Doctoral Student

PhD, Information Sciences, Illinois (in progress)

MSW, Columbia University

BA, Business Administration, Social Work, University of Washington

Research focus

My research follows the work of digital rights activists and organizers of anti-surveillance campaigns in Brazil who protest the use of facial recognition cameras for monitoring public security. I aim to learn how Afro-Brazilians collaborate and practice solidarity to resist and prevent the abuse of surveillance technologies in their communities. My research involves using Critical Data Studies, Science & Technology Studies, Decolonial Methods, and Community-Based Research. Ultimately, I aim to develop frameworks for collaboration between communities, activists, and academics.

Honors and Awards

2024-2025 Graduate Research Fellow, Lemann Center for Brazilian Studies
2024 Summer Graduate Research Fellow (Tinker Foundation), Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.
2024 Global Policy Fellow, Institute for Technology and Society (ITS) in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
2023 Wikimedia Knowledge Race and Education Fellow
2023 Global Intersections Grant Recipient
2023 Harvard Science Technology & Society (STS) Summer School
2022 Summer Foreign Language Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship
2021 Graduate College Fellowship
2021 Foreign Language Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship
2021 Summer Predoctoral Institute Fellow

Advisor

Anita Say Chan

Publications & Papers

Bell, K. (forthcoming). Data Activism in Action: Stories from Brazil's Anti-Surveillance Campaign. Invited book chapter for the "De Gruyter Handbook on Critical Data Studies."

Bell, K.*, Rojas-Alvarez, J.*, Chin, C.*, Chan, A* & Smith, T.* (forthcoming). Unstable by default: The public-private framework in broadband access for vulnerable populations in the Midwest U.S. Invited journal article for the Welfare After Digitalization conference (*: equal contribution).

Bell, K. (2023). Resistance storytelling: Anti-Surveillance campaign in Recife, Brazil. Tierra Común Network, Resisting Data Colonialism – A Practical Intervention (pp. 63-68). Institute of Network Cultures. ISBN 9789083328263.

Presentations

Bell, K. (June 2024). "Resisting Digital Surveillance Technologies: Grassroots Movements in Brazil" Oral presentation and paper at Latin American Studies Association 2024 Conference, Bogota, Colombia.

Bell, K., Rojas-Alvarez, J., Chin, C., Smith, T., & Chan, A. (2022). Unstable by default: The public-private framework in broadband access for vulnerable populations in the Midwest U.S. Welfare After Digitalization conference, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Bell, K. (2022). "Automating Facial Recognition in Brazilian Airports" Oral session presented at the Federal University of Pernambuco - Recife, Brazil.

Bell, K. (2021). "Automating Facial Recognition in Brazilian Airports" Oral session presented at the University of Illinois- Urbana Champaign 2021 Summer Symposium, Urbana, IL.

Bell, K. (2018). "How Technology and Innovation Help Brazilian NGOs Become More Sustainable" Oral session presented at Fulbright Regional Conference, Renaca, Chile.

In the News

Bell selected as a 2024 Global Policy Fellow February 26 2024

Get to know Kainen Bell, PhD student October 30 2023