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Speaker Bio: Sean Dorr is an enrolled member and legal citizen of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe (a federally
recognized Nation residing within the United States of America per the treaties of 1837, 1855,
1863, and 1864), is of the Marten clan, and a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of
Computer Science and Engineering at University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. He works out of the
Interactive Visualization Lab (IV/LAB), building upon the lab’s long tradition of empowering
collaborators and end users to break free from traditional interaction modalities often found in
everyday computing and move toward more natural and expressive interfaces that are built on
their terms. Firmly grounded in Ojibwe values, Critical Indigenous Theory, and Design Justice,
Sean’s work privileges Indigenous ways of knowing to co-create immersive Indigenous media
experiences that connect Indigenous communities to their extended web of kinship relations,
their “data”, and each other. His approach led to being awarded the University of Minnesota
Graduate School’s Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship for the 2023/2024 academic year, where
he worked from within the University of Minnesota Center, the Institute on the Environment.

Abstract: The assumption of difference between the terms technologist, scientist, and artist is problematic
when it comes to explaining Indigenous approaches to knowledge creation. This categorical
delineation is an example of how western values impose norms and establish paradigms that
enforce a western reality where all other forms of knowing and being must assimilate. To
expand the prevailing definition of reality and make computing more diverse in thought requires
a) an understanding of the power dynamics within a given design space, b) an unlearning of the
governing norms in computing design, and c) the inclusion and centering of Indigenous
community voices. This seminar talk will demonstrate progress across these dimensions by
sharing examples from a trans-Indigenous research collaboration among Očhéti Šakówiņ
Oyáte, Micronesian, and Ojibwe makers and knowledge holders who centered Good Relative
kinship protocols in the design of Indigenous Mixed-Reality data experiences. Implications for
computer and data science will be summarized, and future research directions in the realms of
data authoring and storytelling will be identified.

Join us for treats, beverages, community and conversation.

from Computer Science