Professor Bran Knowles (she/her/hers)

Additional links
Lancaster University profile
Google Scholar profile

I am a Professor of Sociotechnical Systems in the School of Computing and Communications at Lancaster University. I harness my mixed social science background in conducting highly interdisciplinary research exploring impacts of and designing better, more ethically sound, socio-technical systems. A Design Ethnographer by background, my empirical work involves the use of ethnographic and participatory methods to draw out insights into design requirements/recommendations for digital technologies.

My research portfolio spans numerous angles on responsible computing, including trustworthy AI, climate impacts of digital technologies, privacy and security risks to children online, and older adult digital exclusion. I have presented to the European Commission and UK Government on computing’s climate impacts, and consulted the UK Government and various corporate and independent research bodies on earning public trust in AI. Recent collaboration with Co-Investigator Dr. Jasmine Fledderjohann has explored distrust of AI and digital technologies through the lens of intersectionality and social justice.

In addition to publishing in the premier Human-Computer Interaction and AI ethics venues, I regularly publish in professional magazines, such as Communications of the ACM. Two such publications (in 2018 and 2021) are on the topic of older adults’ attitudes to digital technologies, the latter of which, in collaboration with Co-Investigator Prof. Yvonne Rogers, calls for a new research agenda for HCI and Ageing, as undertaken with this DigiAge project.

My role on the project

I am the Principal Investigator on the project and am overseeing the coordination of the different strands as well as the engagement with our many partners and advisors.

Why I wanted to join the team

My initial interest in older adult digital exclusion came from my general interest in trust/distrust: I wanted to understand whether the reason older adults use digital technologies less is because of greater distrust. What I found was that older adults were using the language of distrust to call attention to moral implications of digital technologies, and that their non-use of digital technologies was often purposeful, a form of protest against these implications. That being the case, I started to look to older adults’ perspectives as a starting point for reimagining digital technologies that not only work better for them, that they are more willing to adopt, but also work better for everyone else. I am very much looking forward to co-designing a better digital future with older adults on this project.