KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Katie Davis
University of Washington iSchool
The App Generation: How Youth Navigate Identity, Intimacy, and Imagination in Today's Digital World

In her talk, Davis will explore the role of digital media in three vital areas of adolescent life: identity, intimacy, and imagination. Drawing on an extensive and varied research program with colleagues at Harvard University, including interviews of young people, focus groups of those who work with them, and a unique comparison of youthful artistic productions before and after the digital revolution, Davis will discuss both the potentials and drawbacks of new media technologies for today’s young people. The metaphor of the “app” will serve to illuminate those uses of technology that promote a strong sense of identity, encourage deep relationships, and stimulate creativity, and those that thwart youth’s development in these three realms.

ABOUT KATIE
Katie Davis is an Assistant Professor at The University of Washington Information School, where she studies the role of networked technologies in teens’ lives. Some of her current projects include investigating identity development in informal learning spaces; using digital badges to recognize anytime, anywhere learning; building public librarians’ capacity to incorporate digital media into their work with youth; and the causes and consequences of cyberbullying. Katie is the co-author with Howard Gardner of The App Generation: How Today’s Youth Navigate Identity, Intimacy, and Imagination in a Digital World (2013, Yale University Press). Drawing on the research that she conducted with colleagues at Harvard Graduate School of Education, the book considers both the potentials and drawbacks of new media technologies for today’s young people.


Katie holds two master’s degrees and a doctorate in Human Development and Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education. She was named a 2015 Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science, an honor that recognizes outstanding psychological scientists in the earliest stages of their research career post-PhD. She is also the recipient of a 2015 National Science Foundation Early Career Development Award to support her research investigating how networked technologies can be leveraged to develop learners’ STEM identities and connect their STEM learning across informal and formal contexts. In addition to publishing and presenting her research in scholarly venues, Davis regularly shares her work with parents, teachers, industry leaders, and policymakers in an effort to build connections between research and practice.