In the very first paper session at CHI 2026, I found myself thinking, “I wish I wrote this paper!” And then I found myself thinking that a few times more. Since I’m on the hunt for new research questions, it seems worth digging into why I had these reactions. I’ll do so here.
For each paper, I’ll address the following questions:
CHI 2026 in Barcelona was part of my original sabbatical plan. CHI is the premier conference spanning all areas of human-computer interaction, and Barcelona is a direct flight from the UK.
It’s been ten years since I last attended CHI 2016 in San Jose. Why so long? I had a baby in 2017, and there was a pandemic in 2020. Beyond those temporal factors, there are structural factors too. CHI is an expensive conference, and travel is expensive since the location rotates between North America, Europe, and Asia. CHI is typically scheduled for April or May, a difficult time to get away from Whitman: April is the “month of 1000 nights” chock full of final presentations and performances, including the Whitman Undergraduate Conference, running up to final exams and Commencement in May. It’s hard to justify attending a conference if I have nothing to present there, but classes to teach at home.
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Counting From Zero 