Studying Those Who Study Us: Diana Forsythe and the Importance of Interpretive Research in Informatics

Diana Forsythe was a pioneering anthropologist who raised innovative and unsettling questions about the role of information technology in life and work, and differences in perspective between designers and users of technology. Diana was known for her tenacious defense of the integrity of ethnographic research, and for her enthusiastic examination of the “culture of no culture” 1,2 that is American science and biomedicine. We examine Diana’s ongoing influence and relevance from the varied perspectives of four distinguished informatics researchers.