2024 Provost’s Program Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Scholar: Paula Sanchez Nunez de Villavicencio (she/her)

As part of the Provost's program for Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral fellows I will be researching how and why people trust or distrust the wearable technologies we develop and how we engage with intimate and personal technology. Consider the flop of Google Glasses or the success of Fitbit. How we think about wearable technologies and if we trust them shape not only the success of the technology and the relationships we build with and through them, but the development of entire industries. Today, however, these technologies have a further complicating factor: the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies. Apple’s Vision Pro, and the Meta and Ray-Ban collaboration for example, illustrate the importance of studying the intersection of ubiquitous wearable computing and AI as well as its impact on our societal futures, including the ways we work, live, and connect. Trust acts as an integral catalyst for the successful, ethical, and responsible integration of AI and wearables. The research I will do during my time at UWaterloo as an Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral fellow builds on research in the field of media studies as well as the multidisciplinary research on trust. Importantly, I situate my work as a multidisciplinary project that requires the insights from not only social scientists and humanists, but also those working in technology sectors. For this reason, my research is well positioned to contribute to the Trust in Research undertaken in Science and Technology (TRuST) scholarly network, under the inter/multidisciplinary direction of the supervisors supporting this research, Professor Mehlenbacher (English) and Professor Wells (Engineering), as well as the broader team of scholars they have brought together who are undertaking similarly aligned research studying these urgent questions of trust in technology. This interdisciplinary research that bridges Arts and Engineering embodies the goals of the Provost’s program which recognizes and encourages cross-domain collaboration and the growing culture of interdisciplinary research at the University. 

During my tenure as a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Waterloo, I hope to contribute to the expanding fields of research on AI, Wearable Technologies, and trust/distrust. I’m looking forward to speaking with Engineers, Social Scientists and Humans to develop a framework for trust that examines factors such as reliability, security, privacy, and transparency. The goals of this 2-year project are to not only contribute to the TRuST network’s corpus and interdisciplinary fields of research, but to also communicate these findings with the public to ensure we are all building critical and trustworthy relationships with our intimate and wearable technologies. 

• 2023 - 2024 Jackman Humanities Institute Graduate Fellowship ($27,000) 
• 2022 - 2023 McLuhan Graduate Fellowship ($3,000)  
• 2020 - 2023 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Fellowship ($60,000) 

I chose UW for the opportunity to work with experts at the TRuST network such as Dr. Mehlenbacher, Dr. Wells, Dr. Fan, and Dr. Strickland. I also really enjoyed my previous experiences at UW and know it to be a great place to learn and research! 

One of the things I am most looking forward to about joining the postdoctoral scholars community at the UW is the interdisciplinary nature of our fields and interests. It is always a pleasure to speak to and learn from experts in other fields, it really opens up the ways we look at the world! 

Things I enjoy doing in my spare time include taking our wiener dog for walks, metal smithing, reading fantasy and sci-fi, and playing videogames. I also really enjoy textile crafts, gardening, and the occasional pottery. If it involves using my hands and a bit of creativity, I am here for it! 

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