Assistant Professor at the University of Amsterdam's Informatics Institute and Coordinator of the User Interaction Lab. I study how gender and social dynamics shape the way we build technology, combining data science with critical, participatory methods. Previously at Oxford and the LSE.
> dr_sian_brooke.jpg
$
highlight
▮
forthcoming · 2026
The Hallucinated Subjects
Gender, Coherence & the Ontological Politics of Generative AI
With Delfina Martinez Pandiani (they/them; humandigitalist.com), this paper argues that generative AI does not simply reflect gender but actively infers and “hallucinates” a coherent subject, then asks what ontological politics are smuggled in when a model decides who you are. By bridging feminist theory with the technical workings of generative systems, it reframes a familiar debate in new terms.
Figure: the recursive loop of gendered intelligibility (Brooke & Martinez Pandiani, forthcoming).
Brooke, Siân J. M.; Martinez Pandiani, Delfina S., “The Hallucinated Subjects: Gender, Coherence, and the Ontological Politics of Generative AI,” Forthcoming, in Thomas J. Billard (ed), Gender and Technology in Madelyn Detloff (ed.), Oxford Intersections: Gender Justice. (Oxford, online edn., Oxford Academic, 18 June 2026).
My group is recruiting developers to evaluate an IDE task-management extension co-designed with and for neurodivergent women developers. Online sessions, around an hour.
Co-founded a new network at the University of Amsterdam for queer and feminist work in computing, launched at Lab42 with talks, workshops and a community poster session.
Led a speculative design workshop on how algorithmic systems construct and infer our identities, working with feminist strategies of Opacity, Excess and Punto de Fuga.
A 3-year project with the Digital Interactions Lab: “Human-Centered Code: Building Accessible IDEs for Neurodiverse Women in Computing Education.”
$
research
▮
Spanning human–computer interaction, data science, philosophy and the critical, intersectional study of technology, asking who gets to participate, and how we build more equitable systems.
Gender, intersectionality & technical cultures
I study how gender and intersecting inequalities shape who is seen as a “real” programmer, and what that recognition does to participation in computing. Combining large-scale computational methods with ethnography, I trace coding style and reputation on GitHub and Stack Overflow, the meme cultures of hackathons (the Programmed Differently strand), and field experiments on hiring in online labour markets.
Questions I ask
Whose contributions get recognised as legitimate technical work, and why?
How do informal cultures, norms, jokes and memes, gatekeep technical spaces?
Which design or policy interventions actually reduce discrimination at work?
I work on the philosophy and politics of AI: what generative systems assume about us, and what they make of us. I treat coherence, inference and “hallucination” as ontological and political acts, and ask about the epistemic injustice built into how data and models decide whose knowledge counts.
Questions I ask
What kind of subject does a generative model infer you to be, and with what authority?
Whose knowledge is treated as data, and whose is excluded?
How can privacy and accountability be designed into research pipelines themselves?
I design and study technologies for bodies and conditions that mainstream tech overlooks, focusing on endometriosis, menstrual and cycle health. Using feminist HCI and participatory methods, I examine how people turn to AI for self-diagnosis, and how we might build privacy-first tools that take embodied, intersecting experience seriously.
Questions I ask
How do people make sense of chronic, contested conditions using AI and online communities?
What would privacy-first, non-extractive FemTech actually look like?
How do we design for bodies that do not fit clinical or technical defaults?
Through my NWO Veni project Human-Centered Code, I build accessible, AI-powered programming environments designed around neurodivergent cognition, co-designed with and for neurodivergent women in computing education.
Questions I ask
How do neurodivergent developers actually experience IDEs and AI coding tools?
What does an accessible, co-designed programming environment look like in practice?
How do we evaluate inclusive tools without flattening difference?
I coordinate the User Interaction Lab (UIL), a hands-on facility in LAB42 for project-based research and teaching in human-centred computing. It opened in December 2025.
facility
Human-centred computing
Eye trackers, health and wearable sensors, and professional audio and video kit for project-based experimentation, reflection and user research.
teaching
Embedded in the curriculum
Central to the Institute's shift toward Human-Centred Computing, including the new MSc HCI track and courses such as the Data Systems Project.
work with us
Collaborate
Open to thesis supervision, academic collaboration and user-research partnerships. userinteractionlab.com →
$
selected publications
▮
01
“Python is for girls!”
Brooke, S. (2025). Masculinity, femininity, and queering inclusion at hackathons. Proceedings of CHI 2025, Yokohama. · ★ Best Paper (top 5%)
abstract
An ethnographic study of how masculinity and femininity are performed at hackathons, and how inclusion can be queered rather than assumed. Recognised with a CHI 2025 Best Paper Award (top 5% of submissions).
02
Designing for justice in freelancing
Brooke, S., & Rao, A. H. (2024). Testing platform interventions to minimise discrimination in online labour markets. Big Data & Society, 11(1). · DOI
abstract
Online labour markets are a vital source of income for globally dispersed freelancers, yet they perpetuate hiring discrimination through their design. Using a design-justice methodology, a survey, interviews and a discrete-choice experiment on a purpose-built mock platform, we identify design interventions, including community composition and identity-signalling flairs, that reduce discrimination against women and non-White freelancers, and show that anonymity universally disadvantages freelancers.
03
Programmed differently?
Brooke, S. (2024). Testing for gender differences in Python programming style and quality on GitHub. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 29(1). · DOI
abstract
Treating code as communication, this study examines 1,728 open-source projects for gender differences in Python style and quality (adherence to PEP-8). It finds significant differences in structure and organisation but no difference in code quality, and shows a programmer's gender can be predicted from coding style, concluding that gender differences in code are a matter of style, not quality.
04
Nice Guys, Virgins, and Incels
Brooke, S. (2022). Gender in remixing and sharing memes at hackathons. Proceedings of CHI '22, Article 395, 1–14. · DOI
abstract
Drawing on a multi-sited ethnography of seven hackathons, this paper shows how memes and informal technology culture shape socialising, and how even mundane memes can reveal the toxic masculinity and ideology of incels. It ends with recommendations for increasing inclusivity at hackathons.
05
Trouble in programmer's paradise
Brooke, S. (2021). Gender biases in sharing and recognising technical knowledge on Stack Overflow. Information, Communication & Society, 24(14), 2081–2112. · DOI
abstract
Using a non-binary gender identification across 11 years of Stack Overflow activity, this study finds that recognition of technical knowledge is shaped by gender, feminine users receive lower scores despite higher effort, and that interaction is organised by gender, with recommendations for more inclusive online forums.
I supervise PhD and Masters students across HCI, software engineering, data science and social justice. Considering a project with me? Get in touch.
phd candidates
Maria Mlocka
Digital Interactions Lab · from June 2025
How generative AI tools shape user-interface design and whose perspectives get encoded, using multimodal analysis of how AI design systems reproduce gendered and cultural assumptions.
Ailsa Robertson
Theoretical Computer Science · from Nov 2023
Governance, trust and security in the transition to quantum-safe cryptography, mapping the regulators, standards bodies and implementers preparing critical infrastructure for the quantum threat.
masters students · information studies
Rachna Mallara
MSc Information Studies · 2025–26
A privacy-first, offline menstrual wearable centring diverse bodily experiences, built with feminist HCI and participatory methods.
Emma Bösz
MSc Information Studies · 2025–26
Whether uncertainty indicators in AI chatbots can mitigate overtrust in politically sensitive contexts.
Kaylee Wu
MSc Information Studies · 2025–26
Participatory speculative design with female-identifying students in Amsterdam, reframing safety beyond surveillance.
Liwia Tarkowska
MSc Information Studies · 2025–26
ADHD-friendly hormonal tracking, co-designed with women who have neurodiversity and menstruation-related conditions.
technical projects · software engineering
Roberta Pošiūnaitė
MSc Software Engineering · 2025–26
An IDE extension for accessible task management designed around neurodivergent cognitive patterns, via participatory co-design with neurodivergent women developers.
Thom Pheijffer
MSc Software Engineering · 2024–25
CranAI, an AI-assisted malleable interface for the CRAN package repository; led to a paper under review at UIST 2026.
Karolina Koziel
MSc Software Engineering · 2025–26
The barriers women, gender-diverse and neurodivergent developers face with GitHub Copilot, and how AI code assistants could better support them.
Minne van der Poel
MSc Software Engineering · 2024–25
A JupyterLab extension adding collapsing and code-combination features to help manage complexity in computational notebooks.
$
teaching
▮
I designed and coordinate every course below at the UvA Informatics Institute, pairing critical theory with hands-on practice.
An innovative course I designed to teach theory through programming: students pair critical frameworks (panopticism, biopolitics, feminist epistemology, design justice) with hands-on Python/R analysis. The aim is to use empirical methods critically, building one cumulative notebook across the term and embracing exploratory “vibe coding” over optimisation, so theory becomes a practical analytical tool.
A hands-on capstone in which students build a working data system end to end. I run the technical prototyping workshops and the methodology lectures on critical approaches to data, pairing engineering practice with reflection on power and accountability.
A master's course on speculative design and research methods. Students examine how digital technologies shape everyday life across social, playful, inclusive and sustainable “lenses”, then develop a research proposal and speculative design project, aligning theory, methodology and ethics.
