Trang Le

Hello, my name is Trang Le. I am a PhD candidate at School of Media, Film, and Journalism, Monash University. I am a member of Gender and Media Lab at Monash University, and a member of the Australian Research Council funded Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision Making and Society (ADM+S).

My research concerns how developments in technology, in particular digital technologies, shape gender and the pursuit of gender justice. In my master’s thesis, I examined menstruation tracking apps and how they may generate a new dynamic of power and novel ways of configuring the female subject through constant surveillance of the self.

My PhD project has continued this path. I examine feminist initiatives that crowdsource women’s experiences of gender-based violence in public spaces, aiming to use crowdsourced, grassroots data to bring about societal changes. This is primarily done by aggregating these data to understand trends and patterns, which can then be used to inform women of safe routes or assist urban planners in designing safer cities. Throughout this project, I seek to understand how the data turn shapes feminist pursuits of spatial justice, but also more broadly, how data-driven technologies shape feminism, feminist activism, and the construction of subjugated knowledge.

When I am not deep in my research, I (enjoy watching TV shows) play, feed, and nap with my three year old.