Data Advocacy Research (DAR) Lab

“Dar” (long “a” like “car”) in Spanish means “to give”, and “Dar” (with a short “a” like “cat”) in Farsi means “door”.

The Data Advocacy Research Lab mission is to give back while keeping doors open.

The DAR lab conducts research at the intersection of information science, human computer interaction, privacy, and migration.

Our logo is an illustration of Christopher Weed's “Bienvenido (Welcome) Door” in Downtown El Paso, TX, USA on a street that leads directly south into Ciudad Juárez, CH, MX.

DAR logo

DAR Community Partners

The community based research we do is not possible without the immense help in research design and data collection from community based organizers and workers:
Current: Gabriela Ortiz, Emma Brown
Past: Emilia Rosas, Aarón Argüello

DAR Lab Students

PhD Students MS Students
  • Tajwar Ul Hoque (NMSU, Spring 2025-present)
  • Cassandra Palmer (NMSU, Summer 2025)
Undergraduate Students
  • Jonathan Leuenberger (NMSU, Spring 2025-present)
  • Augusto Penzo Jara (NMSU, Summer 2025-present)
  • Marisol Yake (co-advised with Dr. Amy Voida) (CU Boulder, Spring 2022-Spring 2025)
  • Clara Chavez (NMSU, Fall 2024)

We welcome enthusiastic students at any level to our lab, especially students who speak and understand Spanish, and who want to work on qualitative, ethnographic, and indigenous research methods. To inquire about opportunities in the lab, please send out any queries to shiva{at}nmsu.edu

Ongoing Research Areas

Data Use in Advocacy
Nonprofit advocacy organizations have some of the most powerful voices in contemporary politics. Nonprofits are also responsible for informing governmental decision making around allocating resources to address needs in our society. Our research combines qualitative studies of the various genres of data work in advocacy organizations, finding powerful exemplars of data feminist principles in action, with content analyses of the rhetorical data work of political action committees on social media.

  • Enacting Data Feminism in Advocacy Data Work: CSCW'23
  • Data Rhetoric in Electoral Communications: CSCW'23

Interorganizational Data Infrastructures
Collaborative data work among agencies supporting people in migration is challenging as diverse organizations try to balance client privacy with flexible access in order to coordinate, conduct procedures, and provide services. Government agencies, nonprofits, and private entities each have distinct data systems and collect different information. Meanwhile, the United States - Mexico border remains a contentious focal point of political debate and immigration policy The quantification of people on the move influence organizational work, local and national policy, as well as fuels many media narratives and news coverage. Since August 2022, we have conducted 500+ hours of auto-ethnographic fieldwork as well as dozens of semi-structured interviews with people on the move and many organizational stakeholders serving migrant communities.

  • Data Siloing as Infrastructural Activism: CSCW'25
Refugee Sociotechnical Experiences
People in migration face significant challenges as they transition to unfamiliar sociotechnical systems in the U.S., often under high-stakes conditions. These sociotechnical transitions require navigating linguistic, legal, and socioeconomic barriers while managing privacy risks and surveillance. Many rely on informal networks to seek and verify information among widespread mis/disinformation and constantly changing policies and resource availibilty. Meanwhile, AI-driven technologies used by government and private entities shape critical outcomes, despite being notoriously opaque and biased. This research investigates how people in migration experience ICT transitions and how they consider surveillance, privacy, mis/disinformation, and the U.S. sociotechnical assemblage.