PhD Dissertation, 2025 | Penn State University
Background
What if the most important research tool isn't a method, a framework, or a software platform but you?
This dissertation began with a deceptively radical premise: in interpretive ethnographic research, the researcher’s subjectivity isn’t a bias to eliminate. Instead, it’s the instrument through which knowledge is created. Drawing inspiration from Rick Rubin’s quote, “No matter what tools you use to create, the true instrument is you”, I set out to explore what that means for UX, HCI, and the future of research practice.
Contributions
I introduced The Humanistic Ethnographic Essay™ — a writing-based, reflexive methodology that centers researcher subjectivity not just as a feature of ethnographic work, but as a source of epistemic strength.
Through autoethnographic writing, field reflections, and interpretive storytelling, I showed how reflexivity is not an afterthought. Instead, It is a method, a stance, and an invitation to reimagine the boundaries of rigor in UX and HCI research. I also positioned the dissertation itself as a speculative research artifact — one that models, performs, and embodies the epistemological shift it advocates.
Methods
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Interpretive ethnography
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Reflexive writing / Humanistic Ethnographic Essay™
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Autoethnographic analysis
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Speculative design framing
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Critical discourse analysis of research practice
Why it Matters
This work is both methodological and philosophical. It offers a way forward for researchers who:
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Feel flattened by post-positivist empiricism
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Want to bring their whole self into research practice
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Seek methods that honor emotion, intuition, and complexity
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Believe that writing itself is a space of design and meaning-making
In short: this is a call to arms for more human, more honest, and more imaginative research practice.
Business Impact and Translation
While this work is grounded in academia, its implications are deeply relevant for UX teams, research orgs, and ethical design practices:
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Improves research depth by giving language and legitimacy to emotional and cultural insight
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Strengthens team empathy by modeling transparent reflexivity and researcher self-awareness
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Enables deeper alignment between lived experience, research strategy, and product direction
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Supports ethical research cultures by advocating for care, context, and critical reflection as core to design
Whether you’re building AI, smart systems, or everyday digital tools, this approach helps research teams design not just for people, but with deeper awareness of themselves.