Cella M. Sum is an interdisciplinary researcher and Ph.D. student at Carnegie Mellon University's Human-Computer Interaction Institute. She is advised by Dr. Sarah Fox and is affiliated with the Tech Solidarity Lab.
Her research focuses on technology, power, and resistance in labor contexts. She has explored how community-based organizations negotiate disempowering data and tech practices, how workers resist surveillance technologies, and how and why tech workers unionize. Using community-based participatory design methods, she works with affected communities to co-create more just alternatives. Her work has been published at CSCW and CHI.
Cella holds a Master's degree in Human-Computer Interaction and Design from UC Irvine and a BS in Computer Science from Shippensburg University. She is a member of Collective Action in Tech and a former tech worker organizer with Big Cartel Workers Union. She has over 15 years of industry experience in software engineering, UX research, and design.
Recent News
- May 2025: Attended the 2025 CSST Summer Research Institute in the Adirondacks
- May 2025: Participated in the Data & Society's "What is Work Worth?" workshop
- Apr 2025: Our CRAFT session, "AI Workers' Inquiry," was accepted to FAccT 2025
- Mar 2025: Our workshop, "From Tech Lash to Tech Fash: Strategic Reflections on a Decade of Collective Organizing in Computing," was accepted to Aarhus 2025
- Dec 2024: My first-author paper, "'You're in a Ferrari. I'm Waiting for the Bus': Confronting Tensions in Community-University Partnerships," was accepted to CSCW 2025
- Nov 2024: My first-author paper, "'It's Always a Losing Game': How Workers Understand and Resist Surveillance Technologies on the Job," was accepted to CSCW 2025
See the full list of updates here.