Abstract
This dissertation centers on understanding and fixing the persistent and
wicked problem of marginalization in systems. I do this by examining the “power
to name” utilized by cultural heritage institutions (like Galleries, Libraries,
Archives, Museums & Special Collections; GLAMS) and informational infrastructures
(like databases, psychological schema, or social media platforms). As systems are
defined by boundaries, the act of naming or labelling people, places, and things
in these Knowledge Organization Systems (KOSes) produces marginalizations and exclusions.
I undertake a comprehensive analysis to understand how a century of literature and
efforts aimed at addressing these issues have partially, piecemeal, or totally failed.
In response, I develop a three-pronged project combining (1) historical analysis,
(2) qualitative, and (3) participatory action research across three temporal dimensions:
- Historical: To document how the seemingly-neutral organization of knowledge can
shape the most private and personal aspects of identity, I researched (RQ1) how
the organization of knowledge in sexology shaped queer individuals and communities;
and (RQ1a), acknowledging their oversized impacts, examined the roles Alfred C.
Kinsey and the Kinsey Institute played, in order to demonstrate how Western society
came to “see like a system.” - Contemporary: To document present-day harms of this
system and best practices for addressing or ameliorating them, I undertook the largest
qualitative research study of marginalized knowledge workers in order to understand
how they see their role as users, maintainers, and developers of marginalizing KOSes
and what the similarities and differences were in their responses to systems? (RQ2a)
- Future-Facing: Finally, to put these practices into action and to move forward
in an ethical, equitable, and just manner, I developed community-based participatory
interventions into those systems by the people most harmed by them, examining how
we might revise, repair, or redevelop them. (RQ2b) These interventions include the
(1) Name Change Policy Working Group, which pushed publishers to introduce of name
change policies across thousands of publications; the (2) Trans and (3) Queer Metadata
Collectives, which engaged hundreds of knowledge workers (≈100 TMDC; ≈1000 QMDC)
to improve marginalized metadata; and (4) establishment of the Homosaurus Collective,
a vocabulary developed by and for the queer community.
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