Investigating the Relationship Between Information and Human Rights

The world is overflowing with data points, statistics, and content. When it comes to pressing issues of human rights, how can we organize this information to be clear, accurate, and accessible? That’s the question asked in INFO 619 Information and Human Rights, taught by Visiting Assistant Professor Rebecca Williams. Students completed digital projects—ranging from intentionally-frustrating games to informative digital zines—that reflect students’ deep creative and critical engagement with important themes in human rights such as surveillance, children’s rights, misinformation, and systems design. 

“Throughout the course we explored how information interplays with human rights as a right itself, as a harm, and as an enabler,” said Williams. “The class’ final projects were an opportunity to incorporate all three of these lenses creatively, and I am really proud of what they came up with.”

Check out some of their projects below—and stay tuned for InfoShow26, where exciting projects from across the School of Information will be presented.

A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Game Gone Wrong

Anna Hepler, MS Library and Information Science ’26, designed “a darkest timeline” to frustrate players. The game takes the form of a decision tree, in which each situation presents one or two possible choices, ultimately providing the illusion of some control while actually limiting available choices. The game presents “a world shaped by rigid, anti-scientific traditions” and “asks players to reflect on which political and social ‘traditions’ in our own world cause harm, which feel impossible to change, and which emerging norms might be challenged before they become entrenched.” 

On Child-Proofing the Internet

For her project, Margaret Gill, MS Library and Information Science ’26, wrote an essay critiquing age-gating and age-verification laws, which were enacted in an effort to make the internet safer for children. Gill argues that these measures “risk undermining children’s rights to information and free expression while failing to address deeper structural harms.” Instead, she foregrounds child-centered design and offline support, positing them as more effective alternatives.

(Un)reality in the Age of AI

“The Dead Pixel” by Jace Steiner, MS Library and Information Science ’26, explores “the erosion of trust in images and media in an age of AI-generated content.” The game, which plays with issues of false memories and synthetic histories, questions “how individuals maintain a sense of self when the boundary between real and generated media collapses.” 

A Surveillance Tech Primer

Srishti Bhawal, MS Information Experience Design ’26, created a digital zine titled Keep Your Eyes Peeled: A Spiral Into Surveillance Tech, which investigates and explains key technologies and methods that are used in surveillance today. Designed as a shareable, accessible, and informative guide for a general audience, Keep Your Eyes Peeled introduces readers to “common forms of surveillance, the rights people have to protect their privacy, and practical strategies for resisting invasive monitoring.”

Telling Stories with Data

Leverage Points by Danielle Stemper, MS Data Analytics and Visualization ’26, is a digital zine that introduces readers to the idea of data journalism and data visualization. Stemper presents them as “information flows” with potentially immense consequences. Visual storytelling, Stemper argues, bears both risks and possibilities as a force “capable of shaping public understanding and systemic change.” The project’s title is based on Donella Meadows’ essay of the same name.

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