Bio

Hi, I am Seolha Lee, a PhD candidate in Informatics at the University of California, Irvine.

In my research, I examine the politics of data, knowledge, and expertise in public governance through ethnographic and design engagements with various organizations shaping our public lives — municipal governments, government tech vendors, non-profit community development organizations, and more.

By revealing how these actors negotiate what data can and should do in governments, I speculate on rooms for transformative actions within governing institutions to rebuild them for democracy and justice.

Before I joined the current program, I studied urban planning at Georgia Tech, focusing on urban data analytics to understand urban communities’ social networks and activities.

I have also practiced as a strategic designer/data analyst in urban planning organizations in South Korea and the US. There, I first encountered the frustration and fascination of the messy negotiations around data and power in governance.

These experiences across urban data analytics and participatory planning have invited me to tackle the conflicting values and interests manifested through disparate approaches to data: qualitative and quantitative; objective and subjective; top-down and bottom-up, and more.

Publications

Lee, S., and Dourish, P. 2024. Reconfiguring Data Relations: Institutional Dynamics around Data in Local Governance. Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 8, CSCW2

Lee, S., Warren, R., Mazmanian, M. 2024. Efficient service provider or committed social reformer?: Government data storytelling around city data projects. Big Data & Society, 2(3).

Lee, S., Le Dantec, C. 2023. More Than a Property: Place-based Meaning Making and Mobilization on Social Media to Resist Gentrification. Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 7, CSCW1

Liang, X., Lee, S., Chen, H., de la Peña, B., Andris, C. 2022. Characteristics of Jetters and Little Boxes: An Extensibility Study Using the Neighborhood Connectivity Survey. Social Inclusion

Chande, A., Lee, S., Harris, M., Nguyen, Q., Beckett, S., Hilley, T., Andris, C., Weitz, J. 2020. Real-time, Interactive Website for US-county-level COVID-19 Event Risk Assessment. Nature Human Behavior

Lee, D., Lee, S. 2019. Inferring the Character of Urban Commercial Areas from Age-biased Online Search Results: How Place Recommendation Data Can Reveal Dynamic Seoul Neighborhoods. UbiComp/ISWC Adjunct

Selected Conference Presentations

How Government Tech Platforms Remain Solutions in the Face of Failures. Lee, S., Dourish, P. 4S, 2025, Seattle, USA.

The Anti-Racist Government Reform in the Accountability Trap: A Comparative Study of Equity-centered Initiatives in the US City Governments. Lee, S., Dourish, P. 4S-EASST, 2024, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Data for Productive Friction: Institutional data infrastructure for social justice. Lee, S., Dourish, P. 4S, 2023, Honolulu, US.

Interrupting Governments’ Data Performance: Critical Reading of Government Data Narratives as a Strategy to Empower Communities in Data-driven Cities. Lee, S., Warren, R., Mazmanian, M. Data Justice Conference, 2023, Cardiff, UK.

How Urban Activism Evolves with Social Media: A Case Study of the Anti-Redevelopment Activism in Seoul, South Korea. Lee, S. American Association of Geographers 2022 Annual Meeting, 2022

Education

PhD in Informatics

University of California, Irvine, 2021-Present Graduate Feminist Emphasis

Master in City and Regional Planning

Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019-2021

BSc in Civil and Environmental Engineering

Seoul National University, 2014-2019, Summa Cum Laude
Minor in Geography

Research Experience

Research Fellow, University of California - Irvine

UCI Steckler Center for Responsible, Ethical, and Accessible Technology (CREATE) 2023-

Studying the politics and processes of information system development in the US public governance at different scales

Graduate Researcher, University of California - Irvine

Department of Informatics 2021-2023

Conducted research on local governments’ data-centered initiatives for government reform toward racial equity

Graduate Research Assistant, Georgia Tech

Friendly Cities Lab (Lead: Dr. Clio Andris), School of City and Regional Planning 2019-2021

Conducted computational research on social networks and flows in cities and their impact on spatial behaviors

Research Intern, KAIST

Maturepolis Lab (Lead: Dr. David Lee), Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering 2018

Studied the demographic pattern in commercial districts using search engine data and card transaction data.

Professional Experience

Atlanta Regional Commission, Intern

Atlanta, GA, US 2020

Team: Research & Analytics, Transportation & Mobility Services (Joint)

Technical support to improve public access to urban data

Spatial analysis for equitable commuting regarding COVID-19

YANJI.CO.LTD., Urban Planner / GIS Analyst

Seoul, South Korea 2017-2019

Designed and implemented interactive media for participatory planning workshops

Spatial Analysis for strategic design of public spaces

Teaching Experience

Teacher’s assistant

University of California - Irvine, Irvine, CA, US

INF 133: User Interaction Software 2023 ICS 5: Global Disruption and Information Technology 2021