Katy Pearce - Graduate Student Profile

In a recent interview, second year Communication grad student Katy Pearce stated that, "there is a huge gap between technology use (both amount and type) in the U.S., Europe and Asia versus the developing world...For me, comparing the social implications of technology between countries is very interesting...Specifically, I am concerned that there will be a point soon that people in developing countries won't be able to catch up." Katy's experience demonstrates that she walks the walk with regards to understanding the implications of tech use. She has spent time working in international development in the Former Soviet regions of the Caucasus and Central Asia and will be headed to Armenia this coming winter on a Fulbright Scholarship to study NGO social networks and technology use. Katy believes that being exposed to other literatures and perspectives through the Technology and Society Emphasis will be very beneficial to her future work. As an aside, Katy freely admits to being a tech-junky, almost to a fault. She notes, "as much as I love my TiVo, my iPod, and my laptop...my world would fall apart if someone took away my PDA -- my entire life is on there." Not too surprising from someone who started dialing into the Internet in the 80's.