Divine
Keetle-Maloney
I am no longer on the job market :-) i'll make the official announcement in the coming weeks.
Hi my name is Divine! (he/him) I am finishing up my PhD in the Human Centered Computing program at Clemson University. I recently successfully defended my dissertation.
My PhD dissertation is titled:
"A Youthful Metaverse: Towards Designing Safe, Equitable, and Emotionally Fulfilling Social Virtual Reality Spaces for Younger Users"
It is one of the first dissertations on the modern metaverse and the very first on Youth in Social VR. Read a blip about it [here]
To solve problems I use a human-centered approach to investigate computer-mediated experiences and social dynamics of collaborative systems. I specialize in the area of 3D social spaces and social virtual reality (VR) aka the metaverse, and aim to design & create more collaborative, equitable, inclusive and fulfilling computer systems and platforms. My current projects relating to social VR relate to: children's experiences, non-verbal communication, privacy & self disclosure, meaningful activities, self-presentation, harassment, and exploring marginalized communities.
At Clemson, I am a member of the virtual environments group and CUGAME lab where I am advised by Dr. Guo Freeman and Dr. Andrew Robb. My doctoral research currently focuses primarily on exploring the experiences, perceptions and interpersonal communication in social virtual reality (VR). In my dissertation I focus on understanding younger users (children/teens) and I aim to create socially equitable spaces for younger users in social VR [recent work 1 & 2].
I am supported by Microsoft's Ada Lovelace Fellowship, me and my cohort are extremely fortunate and beyond proud to be the inaugural class of this fellowship.