Jean Hardy
Assistant Professor | Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI, UNITED STATES
Jean Hardy's primary research focus is on the role of high-tech entrepreneurship and technological innovation.
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Biography
Jean Hardy is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Media & Information. His primary research focus is on the role of high-tech entrepreneurship and technological innovation in rural economic and community development. He also does community-based participatory design research with rural LGBTQ people to understand technology use in low-resource settings. Hardy’s formative work in rural computing has been published in prestigious venues for information and computer science, such as Information, Communication, & Society and the Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, including winning a Best Provocation award at the ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems in 2019. Hardy regularly collaborates with civic leaders and economic developers throughout rural Michigan on topics related to the future of rural development, and has been featured on Wisconsin Public Radio, Buzzfeed News, and Bloomberg. He holds a Doctorate and Master of Science in Information from the University of Michigan School of Information, and a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Theory from the University of Washington.
Industry Expertise (2)
Research
Education/Learning
Areas of Expertise (5)
Science and technology studies
LGBTQ Studies
Rural Computing
Community and Economic Development
Human-Computer Interaction
Accomplishments (3)
ComArtSci Research & Creative Incubator & Accelerator Award (professional)
2022
Best Provocation Award (professional)
2019 ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems
Award for Impact in Gender Diversity in Information & Technology (professional)
2018 School of Information, University of Michigan
Education (3)
University of Michigan School of Information: Ph.D., Information 2020
University of Michigan School of Information: M.S., Information 2015
University of Washington: B.A., English Literature and Theory 2013
Affiliations (4)
- Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer Human Interaction
- Society for the Social Studies of Science
- Rural Sociological Society
- American Sociological Association
Links (3)
News (5)
There is a good reason not to support the Guardian
The Guardian online
2021-09-18
Many travelers faced criticism last year for recklessly visiting locations overwhelmed by Covid-19. This pattern of urban elites descending upon rural communities led to what Michigan State University professor Jean Hardy calls “disaster gentrification”: While outdoor destinations are presented as a place of “escape”, an influx of visitors may compound crises for local communities.
The State of Michigan Just Launched a Free Wi-Fi Hotspot Map. But How Do We Actually Get Internet to People?
The Gander online
2020-06-23
Jean Hardy is an incoming assistant professor at Michigan State University’s Department of Media and Information. He said the state’s map of free Wi-Fi hotspots, even coupled with the few grants awarded to Michigan providers aimed at expanding broadband access to unserved rural areas, barely scratches the surface of what it would take to get workable internet access to folks currently living without it.
This Pandemic Is Not Your Vacation
BuzzFeed News online
2020-03-31
“The relationship between full-time residents and part-timers is already at a breaking point,” Jean Hardy, who’s currently finishing his doctoral degree in rural technology and economic development at the University of Michigan, told me. “There is an intense wealth gap that’s only going to be reinforced and exacerbated. And the perceived urban/rural divide is only going to get worse in that the continued reliance on rural areas as a place of respite is only going to get worse.”
Making most out of Michigan
The Mining Journal online
2020-02-10
It started with the 2018 New York Times article, “Can Rural America Be Saved?”, but read more like, “should rural America be saved?”, which was responded to by Professor Jean Hardy, University of Michigan Research Assistant whose work on rural economic and social development is well recognized, in “How Rural America is Saving Itself” published by CityLab.
U.P. economic leaders push for rural-focused state cabinet position
WLUC, Upper Michigan’s Source online
2020-01-30
As Michigan's economic recovery continues, the coalition says the state's rural communities and families – representing more than 20 percent of state population – remain left behind, according to research conducted by Jean Hardy, a researcher and doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan. Evidence of rural decline spans nearly every issue, including health care delivery, opioid and drug abuse, infrastructure, education, employment, school funding, property values, municipal debt and cyber access.
Event Appearances (3)
Rural Tech Peripheries: Urban-Rural Economic Relations and the High-Tech Revitalization of Rural America
2023 Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association
Asset Maps and the Digitization of Rural Opportunity
2023 Annual Meeting of the Rural Sociological Society
Better than Google: Information Activism for LGBTQ+ Young Adults in a Rural Community
2023 Annual Meeting of the Rural Sociological Society
Research Grants (3)
Redesigning Virtual Schools as Networks of Care and Solidarity
Spencer Foundation $135,787
2023
High-Tech Development Projects and the Future of Rural Michigan
Michigan Applied Public Policy Research Grant $26,133.22
2023
Human-Centered Infrastructure Design and the Future of Rural Digital Connectivity
Research Gift from Merit Network $42,854.31
2022
Journal Articles (5)
LGBTQ Futures and Participatory Design: Investigating Visibility, Community, and the Future of Future Workshops
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction2022 This paper presents the findings from a series of participatory design workshops with LGBTQ people living in the rural Midwestern United States. Using future workshops as a method, we seek to understand contemporary problems facing rural LGBTQ people and leverage design exercises to facilitate community members to come up with creative solutions. What we find are people grappling with the complexities of visibility, safety, and resource access in their rural communities; people who wanted to be able to use and create sociotechnical solutions that could help them navigate these complexities.
Urban Flight and Rural Rights in a Pandemic: Exploring Narratives of Place, Displacement, and “the Right to Be Rural” in the Context of COVID-19
Annals of the American Association of Geographers2022 The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated many preexisting challenges facing rural communities and brought tensions in rural–urban relations closer to the surface. This article offers an explorative contribution to discussions in critical geography by comparing media narratives surrounding urban flight to rural places during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Introduction: Performing Rurality with Computing
ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction2021 From the recognition that computing users are socially and culturally situated in space and place to the contemporary third (and beyond) waves of human–computer interaction (HCI) research that recognize the ubiquity of technology and its relationship with context, identity, and subject position, the location of computing has long been a concern of HCI and its related disciplines.
Queer information literacies: social and technological circulation in the rural Midwestern United States
Information, Communication & Society2019 Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people living in rural communities have unique needs related to cultural and information access about their identities. A growing body of literature is concerned with the experiences of rural LGBTQ people’s experiences and their use of information and communication technologies for supporting identity and community.
Rural HCI Research: Definitions, Distinctions, Methods, and Opportunities
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction2019 HCI researchers are increasingly conducting research in rural communities. This paper interrogates how rurality has been treated in previous HCI research conducted in developed and high-income countries. We draw from research outside of HCI to suggest how we can effectively engage with rurality in research.
