Trial lecture
“Digital Data and State Recategorization of Human Identity Categories”
Time and place: November 18, 2025 11:15 AM. Kristen Nygaards sal (5370), Ole-Johan Dahls hus.
Main research findings
Delays to healthcare provision; suspicion at border crossings; being denied legal recognition. Identity categories shape our lives in ways that can have adverse effects on the people whose identities don’t align neatly with the categories. In this study, Katherine Wyers asks what kinds of issues arise when a government makes changes to an established category. What happens when a new category is rolled out across hundreds of digital and paper-based systems used in government administration? How does the recategorization shape the work of government officials and civil society members, and shape the lives of vulnerable people whose identities have been recategorized?
Wyers examines India’s gender category which was legally recategorized in 2014 to recognize transgender and gender diverse people. Using ethnographic methods and an intersectional approach, she traces how this legal and infrastructural change unfolded across the health and welfare information systems, and how it shaped the lives of transgender and gender diverse people. The study explores how a slow-changing government information infrastructure can have violent consequences on the daily life of an individual, especially if they are disadvantaged by racism, sexism, ableism, or other structural systems of oppression. The thesis concludes with a personal reflection on the methodologies and positionality of a queer, transgender researcher conducting queer and transgender research.
Adjudication committee
- Professor Shirin Madon, London School of Economics, UK
- Professor David Ribes, University of Washington, USA
- Associate Professor Lena Hylving, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway
Supervisors
Associate Professor Johan Ivar Sæbø, University of Oslo, Norway
Researcher Tony Joakim Ananiassen Sandset, University of Oslo, Norway
Chair of defence
- Professor Margunn Aanestad, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo
Contact information at Department: Mozhdeh Sheibani Harat