matt on the balcony

Hi, I’m Matt Curinga. I write software, research digital media, and teach in the educational technology and computer science education programs at Adelphi University.

My recent research is concerned with the political and social implications of software development and design. I’m a core faculty member at MIXI: the Manhattan Institute for STEM and the Imagination. Currently, I’m co-pi on a Spencer Foundation funded project where MIXI is partnering with the Columbia Center for Spatial Research. Mapping school buildings using sensory ethnographic methods: A district-wide study of school architecture and spatial justice is a 3 year project where the research team is partnering with NYC public school students to train them as researchers and critical map makers in order to study and redesign their material spaces of learning.

As an instructional designer and programmer, I’m actively developing nycschools, a free open source software library written in Python that enhances the NYC open data ecosystem by making it easier for experienced and novice programmers to access, analyze, visualize, and map school data while investigating pressing social issues.

As an educator I have been focused on teaching computer science as a critical media literacy: at the graduate and undergraduate level, and as co-founder of Zero Day Camp: a non-profit that teaches computing; and creates Free Open Source Software, tools, and curricula for (critical) computer science education.