The Materiality of Digital Objects: Toward a Feminist Ethics of Posthuman Care

Author

Beth Giebus-Chavez, University of New MexicoFollow

Publication Date

Spring 5-15-2025

Abstract

This narrative self-study emerged from the desire to reconcile my commitment to climate ethics with my professional practice as a digital learning designer and faculty developer. Drawing upon a lens of feminist posthuman care, I explored the material entanglements of the online platforms of Canvas and Zoom. Data included interviews with digital objects (Adams & Thompson, 2016), a reflective-diffractive journal, and digital collages. Through engagement with the patterns, flows, and nuances of digital spaces, the metaphor of a “carrier bag” (Le Guin, 1989/2019) surfaced to orient my praxis of posthuman care. The carrier bag metaphor also enriched my readings of the data, yielding textured insights into the emerging tensions of complexity, complicity, and repair. In charting my own journey toward applying the principles of feminist posthuman care to digital learning design, I offer a route to cultivating more ecologically responsive online learning spaces.

Keywords

feminist posthumanism, online teaching and learning, digital learning design

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Language, Literacy and Sociocultural Studies

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies

First Committee Member (Chair)

Mary F. Rice

Second Committee Member

Ashley Dallacqua

Third Committee Member

Geralyn Yu

Fourth Committee Member

Ramona Mail Cutri

Recommended Citation

Giebus-Chavez, Beth. "The Materiality of Digital Objects: Toward a Feminist Ethics of Posthuman Care." (2025). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/educ_llss_etds/170