I’m Katya. I’m a public researcher, living room artist, casual naturalist, and spiritual explorer. I live with two animal companions, Flower and Roy, on Esto’k Gna land colonized as Houston, Texas.
I help people and groups organize against systemic data dominance enabled by unlimited surveillance and hidden data extraction. You can read about it in my newsletter or learn more about The People’s Data Project.
I’m a facilitator for community accountability work to build alternatives to the carceral system, towards principles of transformative justice. You can support my work on Patreon.
What I’m working on now
I’m exploring new ways to grow the The People’s Data Project, a learning space for help individuals and organizations defend themselves against hidden data extraction that powers harmful systems. Learn more about the project.
I’m writing my newsletter, Civic Source. Through Civic Source, I write about how data is abused by systems of power in government, technology, and other corporate sectors, and how data rights as a framework can help us re-center ourselves and our bodies in the over datafied world. You can support the newsletter by becoming a paid subscriber.
I spent 10+ years at nonprofits and research institutes in Washington, DC, where I led national programs for more transparent and accountable local government data practices. I have previously been a Voqal Fellow, a Research Fellow at the New School’s Institute for the Cooperative Digital Economy, and an affiliate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society.
I was a founding member of decentralized art + research collective, The Shock Forest Group. I’m currently a part-time curator at the Houston Climate Justice Museum. I work on grant writing, community engagement, and education programming.
Katya Abazajian ~ 