Intersectional Tech Lab Research Staff
William R. Frey, PhD, MSW
Dr. William R. Frey is currently a Joint Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Information and the School of Social Work at the University of Michigan, and teaches as Part-Time Faculty in the School of Social Work at Boston College. William co-organizes the Critical Race and Intersectional Technology (CRIT) Collective with Kishonna L. Gray—an intergenerational, creative, and intellectual community of care.
William’s research aims to complicate how we think about race and sociocultural technologies, and the ways people navigate the structuring, maintenance, and disruption of digital norms, relationships, and boundaries.
William holds a Ph.D. in social work from Columbia University and an M.S.W. in community organization and B.A. in psychology from the University of Michigan. He currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts where he serves as Resident Tutor in Adams House at Harvard with his wife, Kemeyawi, and their Italian Greyhound, Karl Marx.
Areas of Interest: race, whiteness, technology, social media, a.i.
Rainforest Scully-Blaker, PhD
Rainforest Scully-Blaker (he/him) is a Research Affiliate in the Intersectional Tech Lab. He earned his PhD in Informatics from UC Irvine in 2022. He has since worked as a Lecturer in Game Design at Uppsala University and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies at Tampere University.
His research concerns critical approaches to the study of games and those who play them, and he is interested in exploring how play can both uphold and dismantle hegemony. His current book project is about exhaustion as a systemic feature of neoliberal capitalism and how video games enable and may yet work against the exhausting status quo.
Areas of interest:
Alicia Boyd, PhD
Alicia Boyd, PhD is a Research Affiliate in the Intersectional Tech Lab. She received her PhD in Computer Science from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois, and completed her postdoctoral fellowship at New York University. She is an affiliate with the Interdisciplinary Software Practice Improvement Research and Development (or INSPIRED) Lab at George Mason University. Her research scholarship is grounded in intersectionality theory, where she aims to implement reflexive methods and practices in technological processes to improve privacy, safety, trust, and accountability.
Areas of interest:
Krysten Stein, PhD
Dr. Krysten Stein is a Research Affiliate in the Intersectional Tech Lab. She is an Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College and a Research Affiliate at the Center on Digital Culture and Society at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. She was a UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry (C2i2) Dissertation Fellow and is a co-founder of the Content Creator Scholars Network (CCSN). Her work examines how popular culture reflects, mediates, and shapes contemporary social life. Her research engages questions of identity, representation, and political economy, with a focus on reality television, digital culture, and the platformization of mental health and therapeutic discourse. Her first book, And How Does That Make You Feel? Theratainment and the Digital Commodification of Mental Health, is under contract with the University of California Press.
Areas of interest: digital culture, platform governance, reality television, influencer economies, feminist media studies, therapeutic discourse, media industries, cultural labor, public scholarship
Chad Van de Wiele
Chad Van de Wiele is a graduate researcher in the Intersectional Tech Lab. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Communication, with an interdepartmental concentration in Black Studies, at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). Drawing from theories and methods at the intersection of surveillance studies, Black studies, science and technology studies, media and communication, and critical carceral studies, his research explores the embedding of technologies of control within broader systems of racial capitalism and urban governance.
For his dissertation, Chad is investigating the expansion and legitimation of police surveillance and digital carceral infrastructure in post-bankruptcy Detroit, tracing the narratives and imaginaries that support—and resist—these developments in the name of public safety.
Areas of interest: surveillance, carceral tech, racial capitalism, critical geography, governance, resistance, techno-politics of abolition
Keri Mallari, PhD
Keri Mallari, PhD is a research affiliate with the Intersectional Tech Lab and interested in the impact of AI in digital spaces. She is also a data scientist at Tech Impact, a nonprofit supporting state agencies and other nonprofits with machine learning, predictive modeling, and causal inference for social impact.
Keri received her PhD from Human Centered Design and Engineering at University of Washington studying feedback exchange in live streaming communities. Outside of work, she's interested in gaming and/or watching movies.
Amanda Nayes
Amanda Nayes is a Master of Science in Information student at the University of Michigan, where she studies UX research in interactive media. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from DePaul University and previously spent four years as a researcher and project coordinator at the Indiana University Center for Collaborative Systems Change. In her free time, Amanda enjoys playing video games, traveling, reading, cooking, and consuming a little too much Dr. Pepper Zero.
Areas of interest:
Jihan Johnston Mcglotten, M.Ed.
Jihan Johnston McGlotten, M.Ed. is a Pre-Doctoral Fellow in the Intersectional Tech Lab. She works at the intersection of technology, storytelling, and purpose—bridging people, culture, and innovation through research and strategy.
She is the founder of BeatBotics, a creative tech agency that designs immersive experiences and research-based strategies rooted in hip hop, empathy, and innovation. Through her personal brand, Jihan J, she offers a softer, more intentional space where motherhood, mindfulness, and multicultural connection are front and center.
Areas of interest:
Myranda Bell
Myranda is a PhD student in Information at the University of Michigan whose work explores video game studies, with a focus on how race, gender, and identity show up in gaming culture. Her research interests also include game preservation and archiving, and she aims to build virtual museums that spotlight Black women’s contributions to the industry.