about me

hi! my name is derya

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

recently defended my PhD, Sept 2025
Shifting Perspectives: Conducting Visualization Research with Entanglement Epistemology

photo of me with my cat fig

thinking about…

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


present

✏ Linköping University

✉ gotdairyya at gmail dot com

📖 i like books

💾 a list of lists about data vis


past

⋆｡ PhD, Computing (Media & Information Technology) @ Linköping Univeristy, VID lab, WASP Funded, 2025

☼ 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

Nov 2025 :: the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden

Lots of fun news to share for this autumn! I'll be sharing data vis methods at Mapping as a Social Science Method at Maatricht University. Then off to IEEE VIS conf -- come to the Input Vis Workshop and listen to our Best Paper Honorable Mention talk! Finally, I am starting a new role at KTH Royal Institute as a member of the Co-liberative Computing research group.

Sep 2025 :: Sweden

I successfully defended my PhD on 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!