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Diana Cage



Technomancy  HCI




I’m a writer, researcher, and scholar-practitioner focused on ways that AI and emerging technologies reshape human relationships, labor, and decision-making. My work blends feminist science and technology studies, queer theory, and performance, bringing a socially-informed, interdisciplinary perspective to AI, digital media, and design.

I teach courses on feminist approaches to game design, critical interface theory, and the politics of AI. My research explores the hidden human labor behind AI systems, the emotional and ethical dimensions of human-AI interaction, and how digital tools shape our everyday lives. I’m passionate about translating complex systems into clear, accessible narratives that reveal the deeper social forces at play.

My current book project, Hormone Trouble, examines feminist art and science practices that generate alternative knowledges, disrupt dominant institutional logics, and expose the affective infrastructures of technology. I’m particularly interested in how we design, touch, and survive machines.

Before academia, I built a career as a media professional, writing books on sex, power, and queer relationships, hosting The Diana Cage Show on SiriusXM, and leading editorial teams at national LGBTQ publications. This experience in public discourse and cultural critique continues to inform my work, bridging scholarship with real-world impact.


CURRICULUM VITAE



EDUCATION


2026   (expected) Ph.D., University of California, Davis, Performance Studies (Science and Technology Studies)

2011    M.F.A., San Francisco State University, Creative Writing

2000   B.A., San Francisco State University, English


GRANTS, FELLOWSHIPS & AWARDS 


2025-2026    Fellow, Russell J. and Dorothy S. Bilinski Fellowship, UC Davis

2024    Fellow, Sarah Pettit Doctoral Fellowship, Yale University 

2024    Grant, Ellen Hansen Memorial Scholarship, Women's Resources and Research Center

2023    Grant, Summer Research Fellowship, UCD Performance Studies Program

2022-26    Fellow, California State University Chancellor's Doctoral Incentive Program

2023-24    Co-P.I., UC Humanities Research Institute, Working Group on Queer Refuge

2022-23    P.I. Davis Humanities Institute, Working Group Grant for Feminist, Queer, Trans STS

2021     Grant, UC Davis HATCH: Mellon Research Initiative in Feminist Arts and Sciences

2021    Grant, UCD Graduate Student Association Travel Award

2015    Lambda Literary Award, Lambda Literary Foundation


ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS


2017-22    San Francisco State University, Department of Gender and Women’s Studies, Lecturer

2012-17    Pratt Institute, Humanities and Media Studies Department, Adjunct Associate Professor


INVITED TALKS


2022    “An Inclusive Approach to Sexual and Reproductive Health for Trans and Gender Diverse

                Patients,” Improving OUTcomes, UC Davis Health

2021     “An Intersectional Approach to Queer and Trans Reproduction and Sexual Health,” 

                UC Davis School of Nursing

2020    “Queer and Trans Relationships and Sexualities,” Guest Lecture, Feminist and Gender Studies

                Department, Stanford University

2020    “Queering Care and Mutual Aid,” Guest Lecture, Feminist and Gender Studies Department,

                Stanford University

2017     Nonfiction Group, Lambda Literary Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Writers 

2017    “Trans Lives on Screen,” Currents in Queer and Trans Media Series, 

              Pratt Institute

2012     “Equal Time: Gays, Media and the Myth of Equality,” Indiana University

2011       “Feminist Pornography,” University of Maryland


CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

2025    “Queer Trauma, Temporal Collapse, and the Politics of the Digital,” The Italian Society for Social Studies of Science                and Technology, Milan

2024    “Transgender Politics and Fetal Imaginaries,” Annual meeting of the National Women’s

              Studies Association, Detroit

2023    “Performance as Method: Feminist Interventions in Health Justice,” Annual meeting of the

              Society for the Social Study of Science, Honolulu

2023     “Feminist Performance and Social Justice Health Studies,” Annual Meeting of the American

              Studies Association, Montreal

2022    “Pharmacological Futures and Queer Ecologies of Care,” European Summer School for

             Cultural Studies, University of Amsterdam

2021    “Writing Bodily Intimacy in a Time of Separation,” Northeast Modern Language Association

              Annual Meeting

2021     “In Our Bodies,” Performance as Practice and Research Working Group, Performing

              Proximity, UCLA Performance Studies PhD Program

2021     “Writing as Research,” UC Davis Performance Studies Annual Symposium

2018     “What Would an HIV Doula Do?” Queering Care and Cure, UC Davis


RESEARCH EXPERIENCE


2021-22    Graduate Researcher for Dr. Kalindi Vora (Yale) NSF Funded Research Project

                   Narrating Autoimmunity: Biographies of Illness

2020-24   Facilitator, UC Davis, Feminist Research Institute, NSF Funded Program: Asking

                  Different Questions: Anti-racist approaches to scientific research


SERVICE AND LEADERSHIP


2015-present    Co-Founder, What Would an HIV Doula Do?

2022-23     Queer, Trans, Feminist STS Research Cluster, PI, UC Davis Humanities Institute

2021-22     Co-organizer, Symposium, UC Davis Performance Studies Program

2020-22    Board Secretary, Small Press Traffic Literary Arts

2018           Jury Member, The Robert Giard Fellowship

2016-18    Board Member, CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies, CUNY

2014-15    Jury Member, Millay Colony Residency,  Nonfiction Category



MEDIA AND EDITORIAL WORK (SELECTED)


2006-10    Editor, Velvetpark magazine, New York

2009-10    Editor, GO magazine, New York

2005-09    On-Air Personality, The Diana Cage Show, SiriusXM, New York

2007-09    Series Regular, Here TV, New York

2001-05    Editor, On Our Backs magazine, San Francisco



BOOKS



TEACHING

WRITING

GAMES

ELIZA