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Dr Sara Heitlinger

Lecturer in Computer Science

School of Mathematics, Computer Science and Engineering Department of Computer Science

Contact details

Address

Dr Sara Heitlinger A213, College Building
City, University of London
Northampton Square
London EC1V 0HB
United Kingdom

Personal links

About

Overview

I am a specialist in sustainable human-computer interaction (HCI) and design-led participatory research. My particular interests are in citizen-led innovation, urban agriculture, and smart cities. My research is grounded in participatory design, but I draw on methods and perspectives from the arts and humanities, such as feminist technoscience, and socially-engaged arts practice. I am motivated to find new approaches that help HCI move beyond authoritarian, top-down, efficiency-based solutions to sustainability, by co-designing new sociotechnical systems for urban cultural diversity and more-than-human cities.

Prior to coming to City, I was part of the Digital Local Democracy research strand in the Global Urban Research Centre at Newcastle University, where I investigated new methods for increasing citizen participation in democratic processes through co-designing “smart” urban food futures. I was also the lead researcher Co-Investigator on Connected Seeds and Sensors, an 18-month project based at Queen Mary University of London, where I investigated co-designing novel interactive Internet of Things systems with urban agricultural communities to support more sustainable food consumption and production in the city. For this project I won a Community Collaboration Award for Research at Queen Mary University of London in 2017.

All my work is collaborative, and I am always keen to make new collaborative links.

Qualifications

  1. PhD in Media and Arts Technology, Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom
  2. MA in Creative Writing, University of East Anglia, United Kingdom
  3. BSc in Computer Science, Hebrew University, Israel

Employment

  1. Lecturer in Computer Science, City, University of London, Jan 2019 – present
  2. Postdoctoral Research Associate, Newcastle University, Apr 2017 – Jan 2019
  3. Researcher Co-Investigator, Queen Mary University of London, Oct 2015 – Mar 2017

Awards

  1. Queen Mary University of London (2017) Community Collaboration Award for Research
    An award to recognise the people and projects at QMUL that work with the community to mutual benefit
  2. UNESCO (2007) UNESCO Digital Arts Award

Publications

Featured publications

  1. Heitlinger, S., Bryan-Kinns, N. and Comber, R. (2019). The right to the sustainable smart city.

Publications by category

Conference papers and proceedings (11)

  1. Dolejšová, M., Van Gaalen, S., Wilde, D., Raven, P.G., Heitlinger, S. and Light, A. (2020). Designing with More-than-Human Food Practices for Climate-Resilience.
  2. Heitlinger, S., Clarke, R., Clear, A.K., Chopra, S. and Dilaver, Ö. (2019). Co-creating “smart” sustainable food futures with urban food growers.
  3. Heitlinger, S., Bryan-Kinns, N. and Comber, R. (2018). Connected seeds and sensors: Co-designing internet of things for sustainable smart cities with urban food-growing communities.
  4. Heitlinger, S., Foth, M., Clarke, R., Disalvo, C., Light, A. and Forlano, L. (2018). Avoiding ecocidal smart cities: Participatory design for more-than-human futures.
  5. Clarke, R., Heitlinger, S., Foth, M., Disalvo, C., Light, A. and Forlano, L. (2018). More-than-human urban futures: Speculative participatory design to avoid ecocidal smart cities.
  6. Clarke, R., Heitlinger, S., Briggs, J., Crivellaro, C. and Light, A. (2014). Socially engaged arts practice in HCI.
  7. Heitlinger, S., Bryan-Kinns, N. and Jefferies, J. (2014). The talking plants: An interactive system for grassroots urban food-growing communities.
  8. Heitlinger, S., Bryan-Kinns, N. and Jefferies, J. (2013). Sustainable HCI for grassroots urban food-growing communities.
  9. Heitlinger, S., Bryan-Kinns, N. and Jefferies, J. (2013). Ubicomp for grassroots urban food- growing communities.
  10. Heitlinger, S., Bryan-Kinns, N., Stockman, T., O'Flanagan, O. and Couzyn, T. (2012). The Talking Quilt - Augmenting domestic objects for communal meaning-making.
  11. Heitlinger, S., Houston, L., Taylor, A. and Catlow, R. Algorithmic Food Justice: Co-Designing More-than-Human Blockchain Futures for the Food Commons.

Exhibitions (2)

  1. Clarke, R., Heitlinger, S., Foth, M., DiSalvo, C., Light, A. and Forlano, L. (2018). More-than-Human Urban Futures: Speculative Participatory Design to Avoid Ecocidal Smart Cities. 22 Aug 2018 – 2 Dec 2018, Z33 House for Contemporary Art.
  2. Heitlinger, S. (2017). Connected Seeds. 31 Jan 2017 – 12 Feb 2017, Rich Mix Cultural Foundation.

Journal articles (3)

  1. Clarke, R., Heitlinger, S., Light, A., Forlano, L., Foth, M. and DiSalvo, C. (2019). More-than-human participation: Design for sustainable smart city futures. Interactions, 26(3), pp. 60–63. doi:10.1145/3319075.
  2. Heitlinger, S. and Bryan-Kinns, N. (2013). Understanding performative behaviour within content-rich Digital Live Art. Digital Creativity, 24(2), pp. 111–118. doi:10.1080/14626268.2013.808962.
  3. Heitlinger, S. (2010). Privileged tactics. Wasafiri, 25(3), pp. 69–75. doi:10.1080/02690055.2010.486265.

Professional activities

Other (2)

  1. Panel assessor for ESRC CONACYT Newton call for collaborative research: Smart Cities in Mexico, 2018.
  2. Board member, Spitalfields City Farm, London.