Demographic

Age: 26

Gender identity: Female

Race: Indian

Indigenous: No

Class: Middle Class

Other identity (e.g. linguistic, religious): n/a

Education: Bachelors Degree in Computer Science

Language: English, Punjabi

Personal Responsibilities: Full time job. Splits rent with roommates. Volunteers with Women Who Code.

Location: Serena was an intentional student at UofT. After graduating Serena decided to stay in Toronto and found work as a backend web developer.

Widgets: Tools & Platforms

• Coding Languages

Brief Biography

Serena is an Indian web developer based in Toronto. She first came to Canada as an international student studying Computer Science at UofT, and was able to secure permanent residency soon after graduating. Serena became interested in archives when connecting her own experience to the generations of Indo-Canadians. As someone who works in tech, this interest expanded into digital archive interfaces and new media creation. Serena is passionate about her work in STEM and enjoys sharing her knowledge as a volunteer with Women Who Code in Toronto. She continues to search out collaborative opportunities where she make share her expertise with the community. 

Character description

Serena is very passionate about new technology and is eager for collaborative experiences. She understands most are intimidated by new technology and enjoys being the bridge for people so as to develop new media experiences. Serena is most comfortable navigating online/digital spaces and doesn’t see the value of visiting a physical archive. Additionally, as a coder Serena turns to online forums for help, and is unlikely to seek professional and personal assistance from an archivist. 

Interest in archives & Life experience

Why interested in archives: Serena first became interested in archives when connecting with the history of Indo-Canadians. Combining archives with her passion for digital spaces, Serena is particularly interested in how emerging technologies may create more intuitive or even more experimental modes for transversing digital archives.

Community affiliations: Serena’s community affiliations are predominately through her volunteer work with Women Who Code and personal friendships. Her circles primarily include fellow Indo-Canadians, coding peers, and new media artists.

Represented in archives: Serena sees herself in a few archives of Indo-Canadian immigrates and Women in STEM, but not simultaneously. She feels there should be more representation. Professional affiliations: None.

Access needs and mobility: Serena has no visible disabilities or impaired movement.

Motivations

Why: Serena is motivated by the potential of new technology and wants to use her expertise to amplify community stories, particularly those of Indo-Canadians.

Frustrations

Barriers: Since Serena works in web development, she often gets frustrated by dated archival interfaces and databases. With little understanding of archival practice, she does not understand the challenges of tedious digitization. Serena tends to underestimate what she does not know about archives.

Info and Tech Access & Experience

Hardware: Serena is skilled with desktops, laptops, and mobile devices. She prefers using a Mac, but is very comfortable adapting to and troubleshooting other hardware specs.

Software: As a Computer Science graduate, Serena is in her element when dealing with interfaces and coding languages that span frontend to backend spaces. This includes web coding languages (HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, Python), administrative applications, Google products, Microsoft products, and social media. Even when faced with unfamiliar technological tools, Serena has the skills to overcome such challenges with relative ease.

Network connectivity: She has reliable home internet and has a mobile plan on her phone.

Experience with archival tools: Some experience with online archives, but lacks a deeper understand archival frameworks and practices.

Goals

What do they want to do: Serena wants to lend her skills to both her community as well as those interested in reutilizing digitized archival material to tell new stories. She hopes to find like-minded individuals to collaborate with.

What relationship do they want to the archives: Serena wants archival interfaces to be intuitive and accessible. Ideally, this experience would take things one step further with opportunities for contributions and the creations of new media.