About Me

I'm an academic Swiss army knife who uses open pedagogy and mixed methods to understand expressivism and human flourishing—and vice versa. My teaching has been called "versatile and highly-regarded, as indicated by peer and student evaluations" with a "dedication to open, equitable, and learner-centered pedagogy." I've presented on evidenced-based teaching practices, interpreting high-dimensional data, defining fairness in AI, and telling transgender stories. And in 2025, I received my Ph.D. from UW-Madison, where I called for a "radical unnarrowing" for belonging and inclusion in the Tech industry in my dissertation "Doing Evil for Money".

I am the Curriculum Lead for Tiny Earth at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

For more see my vita.

Open Source

Find code and teaching materials I've written on github 😼 and glitch 🎏. I'm most proud of my ENA implementation. I am also developing a TTRPG system.

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Talks & Papers

Knowles, Mariah A. "Doing Evil for Money": Motivation, Collaboration, and Social Change in AI Ethics Practice and Education. The University of Wisconsin - Madison. 2025. ProQuest

Scianna, Jennifer; and Mariah A. Knowles. "Exploring Variance: Seeking Nuanced Stories Within ENA." International Conference on Quantitative Ethnography. 3-7 Nov 2024. 10.1007/978-3-031-76335-9_12

Knowles, Mariah A.; Jennifer Scianna, and Jodi Masters-Gonzales. "Writing Custom ENA Rotations in the Julia Programming Language." International Conference on Quantitative Ethnography. 8-12 Oct 2023. Abstract & Workshop

Kim, Yoon Jeon; Jennifer Scianna, and Mariah A. Knowles. "How Can We Co-design Learning Analytics for Game-Based Assessment: ENA Analysis." International Conference on Quantitative Ethnography. 15-19 Oct 2022. 10.1007/978-3-031-31726-2_15

Knowles, Mariah A.; Amanda Barany, Zhiqiang Cai, and David Williamson Shaffer. "Multiclass Rotations in Epistemic Network Analysis." International Conference on Quantitative Ethnography. 15-19 Oct 2022. 10.1007/978-3-031-31726-2_5 & Slides

Tan, Yuanru; Andrew R. Ruis, Cody Marquart, Zhiqiang Cai, Mariah A. Knowles, and David Williamson Shaffer. "Ordered Network Analysis." International Conference on Quantitative Ethnography. 15-19 Oct 2022. 10.1007/978-3-031-31726-2_8

Presentation: Knowles, Mariah A.; Meixi, Tolulope Famaye, Amanda Barany, and Mamta Shah. "Code-wise ENA: A Sequential Representation of Discourse." International Conference on Quantitative Ethnography. 15-19 Oct 2022. Poster

Presentation: Knowles, Mariah A. "What's Fair?" ML+X. Madison, WI. 6 Dec 2022. Slides

Kim, Yoon Jeon; Mariah A. Knowles, Jennifer Sciana, Grace Lin, and José A. Ruipérez-Valiente. "Learning analytics application to examine validity and generalizability of game-based assessment for spatial reasoning." British Journal of Educational Technology. 2022.10.1111/bjet.13286

Presentation: Knowles, Mariah A. "Coherence and Interdisciplinarity." NetPLACE. Online. 16 Jun 2022. Slides

Guest Lecture: Knowles, Mariah A. "Telling Stories of Transitions: Sharing the Endeavors of Quant and Qual Research." For Modupe Adewuyi's NURS 4434 Vulnerable Populations. Kennesaw State University. 7 Feb 2022. Slides

Knowles, Mariah A. "Telling Stories of Transitions." International Conference on Quantitative Ethnography. 6-9 Nov 2021. 10.1007/978-3-030-93859-8_8 & Slides & Recording (session 4A)

Presentation: Knowles, Mariah A. "Five Motivating Concerns for AI Ethics Instruction." Association for Information Science & Technology. Online. 31 Oct 2021. 10.1002/pra2.481

Presentation: Knowles, Mariah A.; and Lauren Scanlon. "Networks of One and Justice." Network Science: Networked Justice. Online. 28 Jun 2021. Slides

Presentation: Knowles, Mariah A.; and David Shaffer. "Hierarchical Epistemic Network Analysis." International Conference on Quantitative Ethnography. Online. 8 Feb 2021. Abstract & Poster

Scianna, Jennifer; David Gagnon, and Mariah A. Knowles. "Counting the Game: Visualizing Changes in Play by Incorporating Game Events." Advances in Quantitative Ethnography. ICQE 2021. Communications in Computer and Information Science 1312. Springer. 2021. 10.1007/978-3-030-67788-6_15

Presentation: Knowles, Mariah A.; and David Shaffer. "Geometric Intuitions in Qualitative Research." Trans Math Day. Online. 5 Dec 2020. Slides

Knowles, B. A. Various Profiles. ACM XRDS. 2018-2019. List

Presentation: Knowles, Mariah A.; and Gillian Knoll. "John 'Robo' Milton." WKU Reach Week. 2017. Slides

Presentation: Knowles, Mariah A.; and Mustafa Atici. "Exact Solution for Pathfinding under Visible Uncertainty using Dynamic Programming." CATA. 2016. Slides