Imagine a Future Rooted in Culture: Exploring Afrofuturism in Computing Education at HBCUs

This paper examines the potential of Afrofuturism as a tool for addressing the problem of cultural and value sensitive technology design in computing education at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in the field. Despite increasing efforts to increase diversity in computing, African-Americans and African-American women are still underrepresented in computing careers. Moreover, the design of technology is often culturally insensitive, perpetuating bias and reinforcing existing inequalities. Afrofuturism provides a unique lens through which to examine the intersection of technology and culture and offers an approach to technology design that is culturally and value sensitive. At HBCUs, culturally rooted speculative design methods are increasingly being used to create Afrofuturist-inspired technology projects that foster a deeper understanding of the cultural context of technology and prepare students for socially responsible careers in computing. In this experience report, we discuss the ways in which we implement Afrofuturist Design pedagogy into course curriculum for female African-American undergraduate students.