In January 2026, Dang Nguyen (they/them) began their position as a Bellwether Postdoctoral Scholar, working alongside School of Information Dean Eric Meyer. We spoke to Nguyen about their current research, their interests outside of their work, and what they most look forward to in Berkeley.
Before joining the School of Information, what were you working on? What drew you to the I School and UC Berkeley?
Before joining the I School, I was working on research on platform informality, automation workflows, and the moral economies of ‘Make Money Online’ practices in Southeast Asia, alongside projects on phone farming and hardware reuse as informal infrastructures. I was drawn to UC Berkeley’s School of Information because of its deeply interdisciplinary environment, where technical systems, governance, and social theory are treated as deeply entangled rather than separate domains.
What are you most looking forward to about being here?
I am most looking forward to the intellectual density of the community and the opportunity to develop ideas in dialogue with scholars working across technology, policy, and society. Being at Berkeley also offers a rare space to refine long-term conceptual work while remaining closely engaged with real-world infrastructural questions.
Tell us about your current research. What problems are you most excited to tackle in this role?
I am currently working with Dean Eric T. Meyer on a large collaborative project on Tinkering, which addresses ambitious questions about the nature and practice of technology and society. My research sits at the intersection of informal automation, digital labour, and infrastructural reuse, with a focus on how everyday technical practices reshape sociotechnical systems. In this role, I am especially excited to engage with emerging questions around AI and digital consciousness as sociotechnical phenomena, rather than purely technical developments.
What’s a fun fact people may not know about you?
I am exceptionally good at karaoke and used to be part of a karaoke group that functioned as a kind of social and creative ritual. It remains one of my favourite ways to connect with people across cultures.
What are you reading or watching right now?
I am currently reading across media theory and infrastructure studies while also returning to historical and theoretical texts on moral economy and technology. Alongside that, I tend to watch documentaries and archival material related to media systems, repair cultures, and technological reuse.
