Nicole Hengesbach (PhD Student)
Nicole Hengesbach
Research Interests: Urban data visualisation, Human-Computer Interaction, Feminist theory, Participatory methods
Supervisors: Dr Gregory McInerny and Dr João Porto de Albuquerque.
Research Topic
My research engages with urban data through critical concepts and practices, with a focus on how urban data are represented through data visualisation. This is of special relevance in contexts at the intersection of civic culture and where data analysis and data visualisation increasingly inform decision-making, foster knowledge building, engagement, awareness, literacy and citizens’ agency. I am specifically interested in how qualitative data studies methods can accompany quantitative methods and how potential (local and/or social) limitations of data are communicated and represented.
While mainly lying at the intersection of data studies and data visualisation, my research draws from technical orientated disciplines in concert with concepts and approaches from design, geography and philosophy. This interdisciplinary approach promises to obtain new perspectives that open up conventional concepts and ideas, and address the contemporary challenges deriving from data practices.
Background
Before beginning my PhD with WISC and CIM, I did a MA in Urban Futures from the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam. During my studies there I put emphasis on engaging with urban data and data visualisation. As part of my Master's I spend some time as a visiting student at CIM where I was taking modules within the MSc Urban Analytics and Visualisation programme as well as working on a meta-analysis that investigates the potential of data visualisation in terms of public participation and engagement.
I did my undergraduate studies in Dutch-German Studies at the University of Münster. This included a year of studying at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, where I studied social urban history as well as media and communication.
