PhD defense of Nimra Ahmed
Congratulations to Nimra Ahmed for defending her PhD thesis “From Temporary Patches to Structural Repair: Feminist and Justice-Oriented Design for Forced Marriage and Gender-Based Violence” 🎉
In her dissertation, Nimra Ahmed explores how technology can support people affected by forced marriage and gender-based violence. It examines not only what technologies should be designed, but also how research and design can be conducted in community-led, accountable, and sustainable ways. The dissertation argues that technological interventions should move beyond short-term crisis responses and individual solutions to address the wider organisations, communities, and structural conditions that shape people’s experiences of violence and support. Overall, it calls for a shift from temporary technological patches towards feminist and justice-oriented approaches that enable long-term repair and structural change.
Nimra Ahmed was a PhD student in the Zurich People And Computing Lab, supervised by Prof. Elaine Huang. Her thesis was co-supervised by Prof. Sarah Fox, Prof. Tawfiq Ammari, and Prof. Angelika Strohmayer.