Lydia Stamato is a PhD candidate in the Human-Centered Computing program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and a graduate research assistant in the Designing pARticipatory futurEs (DARE) lab advised by Dr. Foad Hamidi. 

I am on the job market for a postdoc research opportunity and/or a position with an NGO/nonprofit in the socio-technical sphere.

My work seeks to understand how people imagine emerging technology in anticipation of more just and equitable futures for people and planet. I use ethnographic methods in a community biology laboratory in Baltimore, Maryland to articulate the foundations of how community-led art and science produce knowledge and practice at the intersection with environmental justice. Outcomes of my research focus on implications and strategies for democratic engagement and community-led design action. My peer reviewed research has impacted audiences in human-computer interaction, sustainable computing, learning science, and public health. 

Previously, I was an English teacher at a post-secondary vocational school for people with disabilities in Guangzhou, China, after which I studied Child and Adolescent Health and Development at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. I have an amateur interest in web development and design, enlivened by three years as the wiki subteam mentor for the East Coast BioCrew high school iGEM team based at the Baltimore Underground Science Space.