About
she / her
I am looking for a new position within academia as postdoc or assistant professor (starting September / October), or as design researcher / project manager within a research oriented institution in Scandinavia.
For collaborations / questions / comments, please get in touch via this contact form.
* expected submission in June 2026, defense in September 2026
** DCODE is an Innovative Training Network under Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 955990 of European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
I am a Marie Skłodowska-Curie PhD candidate* of DCODE** based at the Umeå Institute of Design.
In my PhD, I have been exploring how we can imagine alternative forms of relating with(in) planetary-scale computing through 'designerly ways of reading' Terms of Service agreements. Following a research through design approach, I conducted several design explorations through dialogue with feminist, posthuman, and decolonial theories. I consolidated my explorations into 'Relating design and/for/against Terms of Service' design research program. My work is characterized with conceptual and metaphorical plays, materiality, embodiment, spatiality, temporality, and participation.
Several explorations from my PhD research was published through leading venues such as International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, DRS Conference (2022, 2024), Nordes Conference (2023, 2025), Aarhus Decennial (2025), RSD Symposium (2024), and Hurricanes and Scaffoldings Artistic Research Symposium (2024). Additionally, I exhibited at international design venues such as Dutch Design Week (2022, 2023, 2024) and Southern Sweden Design Days (2023, 2024, 2025) and created public engagement around my work.
I am supervised by Prof. Dr. Ylva Fernaeus (Umeå Institute of Design, UmArts, KTH), Prof. Dr. Johan Redström (University of Gothenburg - Academy of Art and Design), and Associate Professor Dr. Larissa Pschetz (University of Edinburgh - Design Informatics). During my PhD, I completed secondments at University of Edinburgh (UK), Advanced Care Research Center (UK), Politecnico di Milano (ITA), and tuDelft (NL) and collaborated with Open Future (NL) and AMS (NL) together with several DCODE PhD fellows.
I am also co-founder and lead designer of Hamide, a design studio based in Denmark working mostly within the space of everyday designs as well as critical / cultural projects such as around immigration and urban experience.
I am a member of Marie Curie Alumni Association.
“Seda Özçetin describes her own relationship with terms of service as almost “toxic”. As she uncovers more and more truths about the complex, underlying ecosystems of actors behind the checkboxes, she becomes equally annoyed and intrigued.”
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Academic Output
Journals
Özçetin, S., & Wiltse, H. (2025). Terms of entanglement: A posthumanist reading of Terms of Service. Human–Computer Interaction, 40(1–4), 171–194. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370024.2023.2281928
Conferences
Vasconcelos, E., Gamboa, M., Andersen, K., Goveia da Rocha, B., Özçetin, S., Liu, Y., Koefoed Hansen, L., Milne, H., & Paymal, L. (2025). The Possibility of Protest. Adjunct Proceedings of the Sixth Decennial Aarhus Conference: Computing X Crisis, AAR Adjunct ’25, 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1145/3737609.3747091
Özçetin, S., Fernaeus, Y., Özçetin, Ş., & Pschetz, L. (2025, August 6). Towards eco-social contracts through an entangled manifestation of digital litter. Nordes Conference Series. Nordes 2025: Relational design. https://dl.designresearchsociety.org/nordes/nordes2025/exploratorypapers/24
Özçetin, S., & Redström, J. (2024). Rethinking “Terms of Service” through programmatic time travel. In C. Gray, E. Ciliotta Chehade, P. Hekkert, L. Forlano, P. Ciuccarelli, & P. Lloyd (Eds.), DRS 2024: Boston. Design Research Society. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.838
Liu, Y., & Özçetin, S. (2023, June 12). Destabilizing the quotidian: Urban recipes for cultivating care in the more-than-human city. Nordes Conference Series. https://dl.designresearchsociety.org/nordes/nordes2023/exploratorypapers/4
Özçetin, S., & Özçetin, Ş. (2023). Making a Case for Mapping a ToSsphere. Proceedings of Relating Systems Thinking and Design, RSD12. https://rsdsymposium.org/mapping-a-tossphere/
Turtle, G., Guerrero Millan, C., Özçetin, S., Patil, M., & Bendor, R. (2022, June 25). Sensing in the wild: A DCODE DRS Lab exploring a more-than-human approach to distributed urban sensing. DRS2022: Bilbao. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2022.912
Book Chapter
Özçetin, S., & Redström, J. (2024). ToSsphere. In E. Giaccardi & R. Bendor (Eds.), Rethink design: A vocabulary for designing with AI (pp. 55–58). TU Delft OPEN Books. https://doi.org/10.59490/mg.110
Artistic Output
Özçetin, S. (2024). Counter-acting Lexicons for the Terms of Service. [Installation]. Dutch Design Week, (19 - 27 October, 2024), Eindhoven, the Netharlands.
Liu, Y. and Özçetin, S. (2024). Urban Recipes: Seasons Change. [Installation]. Dutch Design Week, (19 - 27 October, 2024), Eindhoven, the Netharlands.
Özçetin, S. (2024). Does Terms of Service Care?. [Exhibition]. Southern Sweden Design Days, (24-27 May, 2024), Malmö, Sweden.
Özçetin, S. (Director). (2023). Look, a ToSsphere! [Video]. https://vimeo.com/871842689
Ongoing - 2021
PhD. in industrial design, Umeå Institute of Design, Umeå University (SE)
2010 - 2009
MSc. in entrepreneurship, Lund University (SE)
2008 - 2005
MSc. in industrial design, Middle East Technical University (TR)
2005 -2000
Bachelor in industrial design, Middle East Technical University (TR)
(First year as prep school for English)
2025 - 2021
PhD fellow, Umeå Institute of Design, Umeå University (SE)
2021 - 2018
Lecturer in service design & basic design, Middle East Technical University (TR)
2021 - 2020
Lecturer in industrial design, TED University (TR)
2020 - 2018
Lecturer in industrial design, TED University (TR)
PhD grant (2021 -2004)
EU Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 955990.
Travel grant (2025)
JC Kempe Memorial Fund
English (fluent / bilingual), Danish (fluent), Swedish (basic speaking /intermediate reading), Turkish (mother tongue)
DIS 2026, Creativity & Cognition 2026, NORDES 2025, NORDES 2023