Steven Geofrey (they/them) is an Associate Teaching Professor and Coordinator of Creative Coding in Art + Design. At Northeastern, they are Program Coordinator for the Information Design and Data Visualization (IDDV) graduate program and coordinate the Coding Clinic, a student-run support service for coding. As a research-practitioner in data, design, and computation, Steven’s practice uses Value-Sensitive Design as framework, code as material, and design as method to examine the relationship between representation, interpretation, and meaning. Beyond Northeastern, Steven is a Senior Researcher and Design Lead with Partnering Lab, which studies the ethics of somatic partnering and physical interaction. Steven was previously a Senior Research Scientist with Project Information Literacy, a nonprofit research institute that studied how students engage with the news and media literacy. Steven also maintains a freelance practice in digital humanities.
In their work, Steven collaborates with interdisciplinary researchers and practitioners, including the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative, the lab of Watanave Hidenori at The University of Tokyo, the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project and NuLawLab at Northeastern University, and the Digital Scholarship Group at Harvard University. Steven was previously a Front-End Developer with the Growth Lab at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Designer in Residence for the Center for Design at Northeastern University, and Data Analytics/ Visualization Specialist in the Northeastern University Library. Steven teaches courses on human-centered AI, creative coding, data visualization, programming for the web, statistics and data analysis, and information design.
Steven received their B.A. (2011), summa cum laude, in chemistry (with distinction) and Asian studies (with distinction) from St. Olaf College. After graduating, they lived in Kyoto, Japan as a Fulbright Fellow, conducting computational biophysics research at Kyoto University. They received their M.S. in molecular biophysics and biochemistry in 2013 at Yale University.
Research/Publications Highlights
Head, A., Fister, B., Geofrey, S., Hostetler, K., and Bull, A. How Information Worlds Shape Our Response to Climate Change. Project Information Literacy Research Institute, June 15, 2024.
Geofrey, S. Building technology with(out) people. In Legal Design: Dignifying People in Legal Systems, eds. Miso Kim, Dan Jackson, and Jules Rochielle Sievert. Cambridge University Press. 2024.
Head, A., Braun, S., MacMillan, M., Yurkofsky, J., and Bull, A. Covid-19: The first 100 days of U.S. news coverage: Lessons about the media ecosystem for librarians, educations, students, and journalists. Project Information Literacy Research Institute, September 15, 2020. https://projectinfolit.org/publications/covid- 19-the-first-100-days/
Braun, S. Seeing libraries through data visualization (translated). Digital Archives Gakkaishi, 3(3). Special Issue: Visualization of Digital Archives. June 2019.
Braun, S, ed. Data Visualization for Success: Interviews with 40 Experienced Designers. Images Publishing Group, Shanghai Co. Ltd, 21 Jun 2017.
Departments
Art + Design
Education
- M.S., Molecular biophysics and biochemistry, Yale University
- B.A., Chemistry, Asian studies, St. Olaf College
Awards
- 2022 Information is Beautiful Awards, Silver Award for Business Analytics
- Peter and Patricia Gruber Science Fellowship, Yale University
- Fulbright Fellowship, Japan-U.S. Educational Commission, Kyoto University (Japan)