Maya Mundell

I'm a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Information Science at Cornell University and Cornell Tech. As a qualitative researcher working at the intersection of tech entrepreneurship, platform studies, and the impact of computing technologies, I explore individual, institutional, and philanthropic approaches to fostering tech entrepreneurialism within marginalized communities, noting their lack of representation in global startup culture. My work informs and supports the development of tech-enabled, entrepreneurial infrastructures and ecosystems that facilitate restorative economic justice for structurally exploited populations. Centering marginal perspectives is integral in my goal to expand and reconfigure notions of what it means to be a tech entrepreneur and technological innovator. My longer-term goal is to foster the development of platforms and tech entrepreneurship ecosystems whose properties and forms of governance make it possible for marginalized groups to collectively establish institutional power that may otherwise not be available to them. I’m working with Dr. Phoebe Sengers and Dr. Tapan Parikh. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the United States Department of State have graciously supported my scholarship.