About

The Center for Human Rights and Global Justice and Tandon School of Engineering at New York University are investigating ways in which human rights groups can use data visualization to enhance the impact and effectiveness of their research and advocacy.

With a grant from the MacArthur Foundation, Professor Satterthwaite collaborated with Professor Enrico Bertini and Professor Oded Nov of NYU Tandon as co-Primary Investigators to research different methods human rights groups are using to visualize their data and how this can be improved.

Beginning with a seed grant from NYU Tandon, the team has conducted research on the credibility of data visualization as well as ways data visualization can deceive. Building upon this work, the team worked with Research Scholar John Emerson and Ph.D. student Anshul Pandey to conduct a focused survey of the field to empirically identify patterns, gaps, and opportunities within the ways human rights groups use data visualization and publish these findings in an academic paper.

The team also partnered with non-governmental organizations focused on civil and political rights, as well as economic, social, and cultural rights to examine specific use cases and test improvements within the context of active campaigns. These findings became the basis for a published paper.

Finally, using this body of research the team developed guidelines to help human rights advocates use data visualization more effectively. The team communicated these guidelines in a specially designed website and in-person at a series of trainings for researchers and advocates working on human rights.