Julia Bullard: Assistant Professor at School of Information, UBC Faculty of Arts

Assistant Professor

Faculty of Arts

Research Classification

Organization of information and knowledge resources

Library science and information studies

Research Interests

classification systems

subject indexing

Cultural Institutions (Museums, Libraries, etc.)

Information Systems

metadata

Relevant Thesis-Based Degree Programs

Archival Studies and Library Information Studies, Master of Archival Studies and Master of Library and Information Studies

Library and Information Studies, Master of Library and Information Studies

Library, Archival and Information Studies, Doctor of Philosophy

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Research Options

I am available and interested in collaborations (e.g. clusters, grants).

I am interested in and conduct interdisciplinary research.

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Research Methodology

Qualitative Research

Ethnography

virtual ethnography

Interviews

diary studies

critical design

Recruitment

Looking to recruit: Doctoral students

Desired start dates:

2025

2026

2027

Other options:

I support public scholarship, e.g. through the Public Scholars Initiative, and am available to supervise students and Postdocs interested in collaborating with external partners as part of their research.

I support experiential learning experiences, such as internships and work placements, for my graduate students and Postdocs.

I am interested in supervising students to conduct interdisciplinary research.

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Supervision Enquiry

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Graduate Student Supervision

Master's Student Supervision

Theses completed in 2010 or later are listed below. Please note that there is a 6-12 month delay to add the latest theses.

Diagnosing bias in the gender representation of HCI research participants: how it happens and where we are (2021)

In human-computer interaction (HCI) studies, bias in the gender representation of participants can jeopardize the generalizability of findings, perpetuate bias in data driven practices, and make new technologies dangerous for underrepresented groups. Key to progress towards inclusive and equitable gender practices is diagnosing the current status of bias and identifying where it comes from. In this mixed-methods study, we interviewed 13 HCI researchers to identify the potential bias factors, defined a systematic data collection procedure for meta-analysis of participant gender data, and created a participant gender dataset from 1147 CHI papers. Our analysis provided empirical evidence for the underrepresentation of women, the invisibility of non-binary participants, deteriorating representation of women in MTurk studies, and characteristics of research topics prone to bias. Based on these findings, we make concrete suggestions for promoting inclusive community culture and equitable research practices in HCI.

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Publications

Roles and Responsibilities in University-Community Engagement for Library and Information Scientists (2024)
Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 61 (1), 732-737
Automated indexing using NLM’s Medical Text Indexer (MTI) compared to human indexing in Medline: a pilot study (2023)
Journal of the Medical Library Association, 111 (3), 684-695
Global Perspectives on Inclusive Curricula: Places, Practices and Pedagogy (2023)
Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 60 (1), 742-746
NOT A BOOK: Goodreads and the Risks of Social Cataloging with Insufficient Direction (2023)
Cataloging and Classification Quarterly, 61 (2), 203-227
“I'm really happy when sometimes I end up on a shelf that seems sort of right:” Historians' Reactions to the Cataloging and Classification of their Own Work (2022)
Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 59 (1), 335-345
“Language is never complete'': LGBT2QIA+ Creators on Metadata (2022)
Proceedings of the International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications
Confusing, Inaccurate, and Just Goofy: Author Assessments of ‘Indians of North America’ Cataloguing (2022)
Advances in Knowledge Organization, 19, 311-319
Misrepresentation in the Surrogate: Author Critiques of “Indians of North America” Subject Headings (2022)
Cataloging and Classification Quarterly, 60 (6-7), 599-619
Comparing the Cataloguing of Indigenous Scholarships: First Steps and Findings (2021)
Knowledge Organization, 48 (4), 298-306
Capturing Experts' Mental Models to Organize a Collection of Haptic Devices: Affordances Outweigh Attributes (2020)
Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
Centring LGBT2QIA+ subjects in knowledge organization systems (2020)
Knowledge Organization, 47 (5), 393-403
Mapping the "How" of collaborative action: Research methods for studying contemporary sociotechnical processes (2019)
Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW, 528-532
Curated folksonomies: Three implementations of structure through human judgment (2018)
Knowledge Organization, 45 (8), 643-652
Fandom, food, and folksonomies: The methodological realities of studying fun life-contexts (2018)
Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 55 (1), 712-715
Online fandom: Boldly going where few CSCW researchers have gone before (2018)
Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW, 121-124
The changing contours of “participation” in data-driven, algorithmic ecosystems: Challenges, tactics, and an agenda (2018)
Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW, 377-384
Collaborative syllabus design for studying information work (2017)
Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 54 (1), 630-632
Translating texture: Design as integration (2017)
DIS 2017 - Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems, 297-307
Warrant as a means to study classification system design (2017)
Journal of Documentation, 73 (1), 75-90
Crowdsourcing approaches for knowledge organization systems: Crowd collaboration or crowd work? (2016)
Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 53 (1), 1-6
Motivating invisible contributions: Framing volunteer classification design in a fanfiction repository (2016)
Proceedings of the International ACM SIGGROUP Conference on Supporting Group Work, 13-16-November-2016, 181-193
Software in the scientific literature: Problems with seeing, finding, and using software mentioned in the biology literature (2016)
Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 67 (9), 2137-2155
Learning from Elitist Jerks: Creating high-quality knowledge resources from ongoing conversations (2015)
Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 66 (11), 2267-2276
Medium, access, and obsolescence: What kinds of objects are lasting objects? (2015)
Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings, 2015-April, 3433-3442
A story without end: Writing the residual into descriptive infrastructure (2014)
Proceedings of the Conference on Designing Interactive Systems: Processes, Practices, Methods, and Techniques, DIS, 385-394
Always somewhere, never there: Using critical design to understand database interactions (2014)
Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings, 1941-1950
Values and negotiation in classification work (2014)
Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW, 45-48
Exploring technology through the design lens: A case study of an interactive museum technology (2011)
ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, 583-590
Information design in/as serious leisure (2011)
ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, 728-729
Online synchronous interviewing of the info-savvy (2011)
ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, 649-650

Current Students & Alumni

This is a small sample of students and/or alumni that have been supervised by this researcher. It is not meant as a comprehensive list.

Bri Watson

Doctor of Philosophy in Library, Archival and Information Studies (PhD)

Research Topic
Expanding the catalog: renaming and redescribing indigenous, Black, Queer, Disabled and communities of color in Galleries, Libraries, Achieves, Museums, and Special Collections (GLAMS)