Patricia Garcia

Dr. Patricia Garcia conducts qualitative research on the complex relationship between race, gender, technology, and justice. She is currently partnering with public libraries to study how a computational justice program model can support girls of color (ages 13–16) develop agentic computing identities. This research involves the design of computing education programs that support girls of color in situating their computing identities within broader self-concepts and in ways that highlight how the intersections of race and gender can function as sources of power, rather than simply sites of marginalization. Her other related work examines how harmful data practices perpetuate structural inequities along racialized and gendered lines, and she collaborates with data practitioners to imagine and enact more equitable data futures. Her work spans the fields of computing education, learning sciences, youth studies, and critical data studies.