Research summary
Caste is a system of graded inequality that shapes the social, cultural and economic lives of a quarter of the world’s population, particularly those in South Asia. More than 2.3 million Canadians are of South Asian descent, and they make up a large portion of technology workers in North America. But we don’t clearly understand what role caste plays in the computing world. As Canada Research Chair in Technological Change for Inclusion, Dr. Palashi Vaghela aims to fill this knowledge gap.
She and her research team are developing a new theory of caste-based inequity in computing. They are analyzing how practices, policies and cultures in the computer sector reproduce, reframe and resist structures of power and inequity, and how these reverberate globally. Ultimately, their aim is to reimagine the role that anti-caste approaches can play in supporting freedom and social justice in the computing sector.