The Queer and Feminist Informatics Network (QFin) is an open, inclusive network embedded in the Digital Interactions Lab (DILab) at the Informatics Institute (IvI), University of Amsterdam.
The Queer and Feminist Informatics Network (QFIN) is an open, inclusive community that brings together researchers, students, and allies to advance feminist and queer scholarship across informatics and computer science. Embedded in the Digital Interactions Lab (DILab) at the Informatics Institute (IvI), University of Amsterdam, QFIN connects work already happening across the Netherlands and creates new opportunities for collaboration, mentorship, and visibility.
QFIN aims to strengthen research that interrogates how digital systems shape power, identity, and everyday life, while also building a supportive space for queer and trans researchers to thrive. The network welcomes work spanning HCI, AI and data science, software engineering, sociotechnical systems, critical data studies, and adjacent fields. Core values include intersectionality, accessibility, community accountability, and consent-based, privacy-respecting research practices.
The network hosts book talks, research seminars, methods workshops, and reading groups, alongside low-barrier community events such as writing sessions and mentoring meetups. To lower barriers to participation and make events convivial, lunch is provided at most in-person sessions. QFIN also surfaces resources, shares opportunities, and facilitates collaborations across institutions, with informal advice on inclusive study design, ethics applications for working with sensitive data and communities.
Most events take place in Lab42 at Amsterdam Science Park, with hybrid participation when possible. Membership is informal and open: anyone interested in feminist or queer approaches to computing — or simply curious to learn more — is welcome.
Bring a project to share, explore ideas with others, or simply come along to meet the community. Everyone is welcome, whether you're sharing work or just coming along.
Schedule
15:00–16:00
L1.12 & L1.17
Formally Joining QFIN Ranks (optional)
Interested in a Working Group Chair or Member, Community Representative, or Project Volunteer role? Complete the involvement survey (https://uva.fra1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_e9HsduKt2iEbJkO) if you haven't already, then join this interactive session about the roles, QFIN's organisation, and next steps. You're welcome to join from 16:00 without taking on a formal role.
16:00–17:30
L1.12 & L1.17
Out on the Wall: Community Poster Session
Share a finished or work-in-progress research project, artistic experiment, or speculative idea related to queerness, feminism, and technology. No selection process. Bring a printed poster, or email your file (max A2) to qfin-science@uva.nl by 26 October and we'll print it for you. Handmade and interactive work is welcome too.
16:00–17:30
L1.12 & L1.17
Queering the Table: Rotating Discussion Tables
Short rounds of conversation at small themed tables, switching between rounds. No preparation or expertise needed, just bring a question or your curiosity.
Join us for the launch of the Queer & Feminist Informatics Network. Exploring how queer & feminist practices can reshape informatics, AI, and digital technologies. Open to students, staff, researchers, artists, activists — anyone curious about queer & feminist informatics.
Schedule
15:00–16:00
L1.01
Keynote — Dr Kay Kender (they/them): Datafied Blockbusterisation
The structures and design characteristics of platformed cultural production are geared towards Blockbusterisation: making that which is popular with the largest audience more and more prominent, while increasingly obscuring marginalised expressions. This keynote discusses three case studies of Blockbusterisation in the context of data-driven technologies: GenAI, 3D-model databases, and social media.
16:15–17:15
L1.04, L1.07, L1.08
3 Parallel Hands-on Workshops
Don't Worry Mum, ChatGPT Says I'll Be Fine
How LLMs, web search, and 'no tools' shape what AI know about queer rights.
Face/Off: Adversarial Drag in the Age of Capture
Drag and adversarial makeup, and gender fuckery against facial surveillance.
Worn Otherwise: Designing Something Queerly
Speculative futures of wearables and AI through queer/crip design.
17:25–18:30
L1.01
Community Poster Session
Want to submit a community poster? Optional, deadline April 17.
Brooke, S.2025. "Python is for girls!": Masculinity, Femininity, and Queering Inclusion at Hackathons.Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. DOIURL
Haimson, O.2025. Trans Technologies.MIT Press. URL
Martinez Pandiani, D. S. e. a.2025. OnToxKG: An Ontology-Based Knowledge Graph of Toxic Symbols and Their Manifestations.Web Engineering: 25th International Conference, ICWE 2025, Delft, The Netherlands, June 30 – July 3, 2025, Proceedings. DOIURL
Keyes, O.2018. The Misgendering Machines: Trans/HCI Implications of Automatic Gender Recognition.Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact.. DOIURL
Sosto, M. & Barron-Cedeno, A.2024. {QueerBench}: Quantifying Discrimination in Language Models Toward Queer Identities.arXiv preprint arXiv:2406.12399. DOIURL
