Dr Cassandra Kist
Strathclyde Chancellor's Fellow
Computer and Information Sciences
Personal statement
From January 2024, I am a Chancellor’s Fellow in Computer and Information Sciences where I am part of the iSchool research group.
My research interests lay at the intersection between cultural heritage and digital platforms, and how their entanglement has implications for processes of social inclusion and exclusion. I am particularly passionate about understanding the implications that dialogue around digital cultural heritage can have for promoting understanding or prejudice across various socio-cultural groups.
Through these research interests I further aim to inform practice in cultural heritage institutions and broader policies around technology, heritage, and socio-cultural cohesion and division. To explore these interests and aims, my research incorporates creative and future-oriented ethnographic practices.
I highly esteem working collaboratively and have partnered with institutions such as Glasgow Museums and National Museums Scotland, and have achieved research funding for related projects. My PhD research was funded by the EU Horizon 2020 Training Network ‘POEM’ focused on understanding Participatory Memory Practices in digital contexts. I have achieved internal university funding to exchange knowledge on digital cultural heritage with colleagues at the iSchool (University of Toronto) and to collaborate with National Museums Scotland’s Collections and Digitisation Team. I have published in peer-reviewed journals and currently have a book contract based on my PhD research with Routledge.
In 2025 I will be open to supervising PhD students that are interested in investigating cultural heritage/memory practices in digital contexts: the intersections between platform, cultural heritage, and practice and the implications for socio-cultural divisions/cohesion. I’m particularly interested in supervising students who are keen to study artificial intelligence in this area.
Prior to joining the University of Strathclyde I was a Research Assistant and Research Associate at the University of Glasgow, where I also undertook my PhD research in Information Studies. Prior to this, I worked in various cultural heritage positions and institutions including behind-the-scenes as a Herbarium Digitisation Assistant at the Royal Ontario Museum, to front-facing interpretive positions including as a Customer Service Interpreter giving tours at the Living History Museum, Fort Edmonton Park.
Prize And Awards
- Images of Research 2025 - AI Insights
- Recipient
- 23/5/2025
- Best Paper Award CHIIR 2025
- Recipient
- 23/3/2025
Publications
- Chatbot abuse typologies : a scoping review
- Kist Cassandra, Nicol Emma, Chavula Catherine
- Mensch und Computer 2025 Mensch und Computer 2025 Mensch und Computer (2025)
- Fitting to the body : the role of embodiment in beauty information seeking
- Chavula Catherine, Kist Cassandra
- CHIIR '25 2025 ACM SIGIR Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval, pp. 140-153 (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.1145/3698204.3716452
- Practice architectures for bridging the semantic gap in museum documentation
- Economou Maria, Kist Cassandra
- Museum Management and Curatorship, pp. 1-20 (2024)
- https://doi.org/10.1080/09647775.2024.2426799
- Crafting Museum Social Media for Social Inclusion Work
- Kist Cassandra
- (2024)
- https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003407539
- Towards a toolbox for future envisioning memory practices
- Tran Quoc-Tan, Boersma Susanne, Chahine Anne S, Kist Cassandra, Moraitopoulou Elina, Mucha Franziska, Tzouganatou Angeliki, Widmaier Lorenz, Zwart Inge, Kambunga Asnath Paula, Huvila Isto
- Future Memory Practices Across Institutions, Communities, and Modalities (2024) (2024)
- https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003459163-14
- Shifting from 'inside-out' to 'outside in' : envisioning ways of structurally integrating participatory principles in museums
- Boersma Susanne, Kist Cassandra, Mucha Franziska, Zwart Inge, Economou Maria
- Future Memory Practices Across Institutions, Communities, and Modalities (2024) (2024)
- https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003459163-3
Research Interests
- Digital cultural heritage
- User engagement/experiences with cultural heritage on digital-communications platforms
- Personal memory practices in digital contexts
- Digital platforms (social media/chatbots) as ‘contact zones’
- Processes of marginalization and its intersection with digital cultural heritage
- Digital infrastructures and infrastructuring
- Future-oriented/creative/participatory and collaborative research methods
Professional Activities
- AI in Museum Social Media Practices: Uses, perceptions and future directions
- Speaker
- 22/1/2026
- Reverse Viva Session: Crafting Museum Social Media
- Speaker
- 26/6/2025
- Showcasing the DeCoGLAM Project: Community building in Decolonising GLAMs (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums)
- Speaker
- 3/6/2025
- Digital Heritage 2025 (Event)
- Peer reviewer
- 27/5/2025
- Generative Artificial Intelligence for images from the Colonial Period
- Participant
- 13/5/2025
- ASIS&T Annual Meeting 2025 (Event)
- Peer reviewer
- 30/4/2025
Projects
- UDLA 2527 University of Strathclyde | Barrie, Danielle
- Kist, Cassandra (Principal Investigator) Moshfeghi, Yashar (Co-investigator) Barrie, Danielle (Research Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2025 - 01-Jan-2029
- Community building in Decolonising GLAMs (DeCoGLAM)
- Dobreva, Milena (Principal Investigator) Hosseini, Donnesh Dustin (Researcher) Kist, Cassandra (Researcher) Chavula, Catherine (Researcher) Mahey, Mahendra (Researcher)
- This project seeks to create a community of practice (CoP) bringing together
academics, galleries, libraries, archives and museum (GLAM) professionals, and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) experts. On an institutional level, it will contribute to the ongoing recommendations of the Race Equality Working Group, specifically: 'develop a cross-university CoP to "decolonise the curriculum" across faculties.'. On a wider scale, it will support changes needed in societal processes and attitudes to enable effective decolonisation in GLAMs. - 01-Jan-2025 - 31-Jan-2025
- Bridging the Digital Skills Gap of Records Officers in Zambia in Line with the eGovernance Reform: Needs Assessment and Developing Professional Training Programme
- Dobreva, Milena (Principal Investigator) Kist, Cassandra (Co-investigator) Chavula, Catherine (Co-investigator)
- Zambia is implementing the smart Zambia vision to be delivered by 2030. A vital part of it is the large-scale digital transformation of the public service sector undertaking digitalisation of records management by deploying electronic records and document management systems (ERDMS). However, a recent study by Bwalya and Kakandelwa (2023) shows that records officers in Zambia lack digital skills for managing e-records.
This project, built as a new collaboration between the Computer and Information Sciences Department (University of Strathclyde) and the Department of Library and Information Science (University of Zambia) and supported by governmental agencies such as the National Archives of Zambia, aims to bridge this digital skills gap.
The project will combine an assessment of the training needs related to digital skills of the records officers in government/local authorities with developing an appropriate training programme for the records management sector in Zambia. It also aims to promote open government data, which is still in its infancy in Zambia.
Besides the research outcome of mapping the digital skills landscape in records management in Zambia, the project will deliver long-term societal impact on improved eGovernment practices. It can serve as a blueprint for other sub-Saharan countries striving for digital transformation. - 01-Jan-2024 - 31-Jan-2025
- Museum social media cultures seminar series and network
- Kist, Cassandra (Principal Investigator)
- The Museum and Social Media Cultures Research Network is dedicated to fostering collaborative exploration and understanding of the dynamic interplay between museums and social media platforms. Our mission is to cultivate a vibrant community of researchers committed to advancing knowledge, innovation, and best practices in this evolving intersection.
- 01-Jan-2024
Contact
Dr
Cassandra
Kist
Strathclyde Chancellor's Fellow
Computer and Information Sciences
Email: cassandra.kist@strath.ac.uk
Tel: Unlisted