Steven Geofrey (he/they) is a Front-End Software Developer with the Growth Lab. As a research-practitioner in data, design, and computation, Steven’s work is heavily informed by his interdisciplinary background in the natural sciences (biophysics), humanities (Japanese studies), and social sciences (media and information literacy). Through his research and creative practice, Steven explores themes of representation, narrative, language, and human experience, seeking to address the varied possible responses to one question in particular: What does it mean to employ visualization as a medium in which radical representation can deconstruct privileged, canonical, and dominant perspectives? To explore this, Steven’s work focuses primarily on the use of data visualization, computation, and design to investigate texts, where a “text” is anything that can be read and interpreted, serves as a set of coherent signs and symbols, and functions as something that is situated and composed: novels, poetry, song lyrics, film screenplay, musical score, cinematography, historiography, urban layout, archival data, the visual design of websites, and beyond.

Steven received an M.S. in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale University (2013) and B.A. in chemistry and Asian studies from St. Olaf College (2011). From 2011-2012, he was a Fulbright Fellow in Japan at Kyoto University. Before joining Harvard, Steven was an Assistant Teaching Professor/Designer in Residence at Northeastern University, and previously worked in libraries as a consultant in data visualization and digital humanities. Outside of the Growth Lab, Steven maintains an active freelance practice and does research in information literacy as Senior Researcher in Information Design with Project Information Literacy.