Raechel Walker, Brady Cruse, Aisha Cora, and Cynthia Breazeal. 2025. Redefining Data Science: Where Transformative Youth Organizing Meets Arts-Based Abolitionist Education. In Proceedings of the 2025 Conference on Research on Equitable and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT 2025). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 78–89. https://doi.org

Abstract

Data science courses often exclude engagement with minoritized groups, discouraging these students from persuing this field. Our Data Activism Program for African American students integrated arts-based abolitionist education and transformative youth organizing. Students collaborated with four community organizations, conducting interviews and surveys to engage with their community and highlight racial disparities in environmental injustice. Post-course surveys and interviews showed an increase in students' ability to apply transformative youth organizing to data science, demonstrating real-world impact. They found the program accessible and meaningful, transforming data science into a tool for self-expression, critical analysis, and activism rather than just an academic subject.