Morgan Vigil-Hayes is an Associate Professor in the Department of Media & Information at Michigan State University. She grew up in the Central Valley of California before pursuing her BS in computer science at Westmont College. She earned her PhD in computer science at UC Santa Barbara, whereafter she served as a faculty member in the School of Informatics, Computing & Cyber Systems at Northern Arizona University for eight years.
Vigil-Hayes’ directs the Locally Owned and Managed Systems Lab (LOOM), where her research focuses on (1) characterizing how communities build, use, and care for networked information systems; and (2) designing and deploying networked systems and artifacts that support local self-governance and affirm community knowledge values and systems. In particular, she centers rurality and Indigeneity in her work and has partnered with tribal networks and organizations in California and the Southwest.
Her scholarship has been funded by National Science Foundation, Google Research, Rockefeller Foundation, and National Institutes of Health.