Lauren Steele

Associate Professor, Media Arts, Sciences and Studies
Office: Roy H Park School of Communications 373, Ithaca, NY 14850

Lauren Britton, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Emerging Media in the Park School of Communications at Ithaca College. She earned her PhD in Information Science and Technology from Syracuse University in August 2017.

Her research lies at the intersection of human computer interaction and social theory, with particular interest in feminist science and technology studies and ubiquitous computing. Lauren's dissertation explored the relationship between the human body and embedded/implanted technology.


Prior to starting her PhD, Lauren worked as a public librarian where she designed and developed the first library makerspace.

Courses Taught:

  • Design of New Media: Theory, Function, and Analysis
  • Introduction to Emerging Media
  • Mass Media Research Methods
  • From Girl Power to Girls Gone Wild: Feminist Infiltrations in Popular Culture and Media (FLEFF mini course)

Areas of Research Interest:

  • Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)
  • Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
  • Critical Making and Design
  • Feminist Science and Technology Studies
  • Social Media/Social Computing
  • Intercultural Collaboration

Recent Publications:

Britton, L., Barkhuus, L., Semaan, B. (2020). Mothers as Candy Wrappers – Understanding mothers’ use of social-media groups for self-organizing social support. Proceedings of the ACM International Conference on Supporting Group Work (GROUP 2020). Sanibel, FL. New York: ACM.

Britton, L. (2018). The Body (re)Designed. Presented for workshop "The Body as Starting Point: Exploring Inside and Around Body Boundaries for Body-Centric Computing Design” in the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2018). Montreal, CA. New York: ACM.

Bratt, S., Semaan, B., Britton, L., Dosono, B., Franco, Z. (2017). Translation in Personal Crises: Opportunities for Wearable ICT Design. In Proceedings of the Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM 2017). Albi, Occitanie Pyrénées-Méditerranée, France.

Britton, L., Semaan, B. (2017). Manifesting the Cyborg via Techno-Body Modification: From Human Computer Interaction to Integration. In Submission to the Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2017). Denver, CO. New York: ACM.

Semaan, B., Britton, L., Dosono, B. (2017). Military Masculinity and the Travails of Transitioning: Disclosure in Social Media. To Appear in Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW 2017). Portland, OR. New York: ACM.

Semaan, B., Dosono, B., Britton, L. (2017). Impression Management in High Context Societies: Saving Face with ICT. To Appear in Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW 2017). Portland, OR. New York: ACM.

Semaan, B., Britton, L., Dosono, B. (2016). Transition Resilience with ICTs: ‘Identity Awareness’ in Veteran Reintegration. In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2016). San Jose, CA. New York: ACM.