Hey, I’m Aysha! I am a
Hirshhorn
Washington, DC
Ai Weiwei: Trace at Hirshhorn 2017
About Me
People and Things. Research and Writing.
I am currently a Senior User Experience Researcher at Google. I am deeply passionate about people and things and work hard to better understand the relationships between the two. I enjoy discovering the ways in which people interact with, learn from, benefit from, and at times, are hindered by material objects and experiences. I am a storyteller by nature and a social scientist by training. My work aims to improve the experiences of people in everyday life through technology, arts, and culture.
Chateau de Versailles
Versailles, France
Hall of Mirrors 2017
Scholarship
Graduation Day 2018
I attribute much of my education to my worldly experiences through travel, museum exploration, and arts-based learning. As a native Washingtonian, I grew up in the Smithsonian Institution surrounded by the most fascinating objects and stories of everyday life. I love learning about people — the ways we are similar, different, our passions and drives — so I decided to become an anthropologist.
Doctor of Philosophy
Global and Sociocultural Studies (Anthropology)
Florida International University
Master of Arts
African and African Diaspora Studies
Florida International University
Bachelors of Arts
English / Government and Politics
St. John’s University, Queens
Academic Research
My Research Toolkit
Material Girls: Consumption and the Making of Middle Class Identity in the Experiences of Black Single Mothers in the DC Metropolitan Area
I am obsessed with things. I like to buy things, save things, study things, and question things. It’s the reason I love museums’ vibrant collections, and why I decided to embark on a doctoral research project that focused on identity-making and things.
My research focuses on the single mothers in the black middle class and the ways in which they perform and craft their identities through both material and immaterial things. To gather my data, I employed a mix of qualitative and quantitative research methods. I conducted semi-structured 1:1 interviews, led focus groups, conducted surveys, and engaged in participant observation. I used technology to record and transmit the information gathered, and most importantly, to organize my findings.
Over the course of one year, I interviewed 30 black middle class single mothers who lived and worked in the DC metropolitan area. I built friendships and connections with women who became comfortable enough with me to share their stories. I am building an online digital exhibition of my research findings to share with the public. I believe that knowledge should be easily accessible to individuals of all backgrounds -- not just those in the academy -- and this is one way I intend to educate outside of expensive and inaccessible scholarly databases.
