Elizabeth Buie

Religion and spirituality (R/S) shape billions of lives, yet they remain marginal in Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) research. Prior literature reviews mapped fragments of this space but missed key contributions and the lived realities of its researchers. We extend this picture through a review of 206 ACM and IEEE publications and a survey of R/S scholars in HCI (n = 19). Our analysis shows a field in transition: Research on R/S is growing slightly in volume and diversity, with design-oriented work emerging as the dominant form of engagement. Yet the ACM and IEEE corpora remain largely separate, reflecting distinct epistemic traditions. Researchers report persistent challenges, including marginalization, exposing a deeper tension in HCI: While HCI claims to center the full range of human experience, R/S experience is still treated with suspicion. Our findings call for a reconsideration: If HCI is serious about human experience, it must take R/S experiences seriously as well.

Religion and spirituality (R/S) are an important part of many people’s lives, and while HCI is increasingly engaged in research and design in specific R/S contexts, there are many cases where researchers or designers encounter R/S outside of such contexts. In this workshop, we seek to bring together HCI researchers and designers across all research areas and with varying levels of experience with R/S to discuss encounters with R/S in their work, either intentional or not, and to develop principles and strategies to guide HCI research and design that intersects with R/S. Through this workshop, we also seek to further establish a network of scholars who can provide each other support in navigating R/S-related challenges and opportunities in their work and can participate in publication-oriented collaborations that consider the intersection of R/S and HCI.