Jasmina Tacheva
Educator · Researcher · Swarm Chaser
I follow the histories and forms of resistance dominant systems try to erase, and use research and storytelling to preserve collective memory and envision more just futures.
I study how data and technological infrastructures distribute power and reproduce inequalities, and how communities across regions and generations organize and resist. I also document queer histories from the Balkans and share them through digital archives, oral histories, film, exhibitions, and public lectures.
About
Research
I teach at Syracuse University, where I direct the Critical AI Research and Education Lab and work with students to think critically about the societal and environmental impacts of data and technology through queer and transnational feminist frameworks.
My most recent publications include:
More than Victims of the State: A Visual Archive of Queer Desire in Socialist Bulgaria in Visual Studies · January 2026 · Open access · Challenges narratives that reduce queer life under state socialism to repression and victimhood. The article recovers forms of queer desire, intimacy, pleasure, and everyday life that persisted alongside (and exceeded) the power of the state. Read the full paper
AI Empire: Unraveling the Interlocking Systems of Oppression in Generative AI’s Global Order in Big Data & Society · December 2023 · Theorizes AI as a distributed global order rooted in heteropatriarchy, racial capitalism, white supremacy, and coloniality, and argues that justice requires transforming the systems surrounding AI rather than relying on technical reform alone. Read the full paper
Informational Value of Visual Nudges During Crises: Improving Public Health Outcomes Through Social Media Engagement Amid COVID-19 in Production and Operations Management · August 2023 · Lead author: Anton Ivanov · Investigates whether mask-related images shared by institutions on social media were associated with improved public-health outcomes, finding that the platform and timing of visual communication meaningfully influence its effectiveness. Read the full paper
Taking a Critical Look at the Critical Turn in Data Science: From “Data Feminism” to Transnational Feminist Data Science in Big Data & Society · July 2022 · Open access · Argues that Western-centered approaches to data feminism can obscure the experiences and knowledge of women and communities outside the Global North. The article develops five interventions for a transnational feminist data science. Read the full paper
Writing
Research matters to me most when it can move beyond academic spaces and become part of public life. I write for wider audiences because ideas should be accessible to the people whose histories and struggles they address, not only to those with access to universities and scholarly journals.I also value conversations as forms of shared knowledge-making that allow writers, artists, activists, and community members to tell their stories in their own voices and open space for reflection that cannot always emerge through conventional academic writing.
Interview with Renée Karabash: “There Is Nothing Shameful About Being Vulnerable or Sensitive” in Vechernitsa · June 20, 2026 · English · A conversation with Booker Prize shortlisted author Renée Karabash about self-knowledge, women’s rights, queer liberation, inherited trauma, and art’s capacity to help people process pain and imagine different ways of living. Read the interview
Cyberfeminist Art in Bulgaria: Intersections of Gender and Technology, East and West, Past, Present, and Future in Open Art Files · April 2025 · English · A transnational history of Bulgarian cyberfeminist art that connects socialist technological culture with contemporary artistic work on gender, embodiment, AI, and liberation. Read the essay
„Ялова понуда“ — уникалният женски празник в с. Гостилица in Vechernitsa · March 6, 2026 · Bulgarian · A report on a centuries-old women’s celebration in a Bulgarian village and the work of local women preserving the disappearing tradition. Прочетете на български
Projects
These are some of the films, archives, exhibitions, and digital projects I’ve helped create to bring overlooked histories into public life.
Space Women (2026, dir. Jasmina Tacheva): A documentary about the Bulgarian women scientists whose work helped shape the country’s history of space research. Preview:
Auntie Vaska (2025, dir. Mihaila Zarkova): A documentary that brings sculptor Vaska Emanuilova’s life and intimate world back into public memory. Trailer:
contact
I am always glad to connect with anyone interested in queer history, public memory, critical technology, and collective forms of knowledge-making. The best way to reach me is by email:
mailto:[email protected]