about me

hi! my name is derya

pronounced in english: dairy-ya
pronouns in english: she/her/hers

currently looking for academic research positions starting Fall 2025 in Europe – you can find my CV here

thinking about…

• ethical visualizations
• communicating science research
• understanding how data became important
• learning Swedish
• hanging out with my cat Fig

present

✏ Doktorand, Science & Technology @ Linköping University

✉ derya.akbaba at liu dot se

⋆｡˚ member of VID lab

🦋 b/c elon musk ruins everything

📖 i like books

💾 a list of lists about data vis

past

☼ Masters, Computing @ U. of Utah, VDL lab, 2022

☃ BSc, Industrial & Labor Relations @ Cornell, 2013

recent work

Here’s what you need to know about my data: Exploring Expert Knowledge’s Role in Data Analysis
Haihan Lin, Maxim Lisnic, Derya Akbaba, Miriah Meyer, Alexander Lex
(to appear) IEEE VIS 2025 Proceedings, 2025
🥛 2025 VIS Honorable Mention
preprint

Entanglements for Visualization: Changing Research Outcomes through Feminist Theory
Derya Akbaba, Lauren Klein, Miriah Meyer
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 2024
🥛 2024 VIS Best Paper Award (Top 1% of papers)
paper supplemental material

Discursive Patinas: Anchoring Discussions in Data Visualizations
Tobias Kauer, Derya Akbaba, Marian Dörk, Benjamin Bach
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 2024
paper

news

Sep 2025 :: Sweden

I will defend 4 Sept! You can find my thesis, Shifting Perspectives; Conducting Visualization Research with Entanglement Epistemology online.

Jun 2025 :: Finland

Wow! Excited to present 'Care, Craft, & Complexity' at the Visualizing Knowledge Conf! It'll be my first time visiting Finland!

May 2025 :: Sweden

Looking forward to 3 day workshop at Digital Futures Focus Period on FemTech and Feminist Tech at KTH!