Commencement Spotlight: 2026 Lancaster Dissertation Awardee Sienna Helena Parker

I was elated when I found out that I had won the Lancaster award for my dissertation. When I received the news, I was actually working at a coffee shop (Dune on Storke) with some friends who are also PhD students. It was a delight to share that moment with those friends in person and to connect with others in my support system to celebrate with them. I felt (and still feel) so honored to have this recognition, especially to have been considered alongside what I know were many other great dissertations.

Building and writing my dissertation has been one of the most challenging yet most rewarding things I have ever done. The challenge and reward primarily stem from the fact that you begin only with seedlings of ideas that compel you, but they are just that, ideas. You can only turn them into knowledge through the winding process of research. Research is slow and painstaking, filled with setbacks and doubt. Yet, slowly, those seedlings begin to grow and, word by word, you build a dissertation. I am grateful that what I set out to understand in my dissertation ultimately came together in a way that resonates with others, too.

My fascinations developed through several moments that sparked my curiosity and raised many questions that seemed yet to be answered. One of those moments came from a course I took during my undergraduate studies on adulthood and aging. I became fascinated by the extent of development that occurs beyond childhood and by how populations around the world are aging, a trajectory that has never existed in human history. After finishing my undergraduate degree, I worked for a couple of years in technology companies in San Francisco. During this time, I developed new curiosities about how emerging technologies were altering the way we work; these changes were bringing forward new types of work but also seemed to introduce new uneasiness and uncertainty. Those curiosities gradually merged with my fascinations about aging and ultimately led me to pursue a PhD in Technology Management. Throughout my doctoral studies, my fascinations have continued to sharpen through conversations, coursework, and readings, even as the core of my interests remained largely the same.

I spent a lot of time figuring out which PhD program I wanted to pursue, especially because I was looking for one that would provide a supportive environment to explore my interests. At that time, I was really interested in researching how older adults learn new technology skills at work. I came across the Technology Management website and, browsing through faculty members’ profiles, I saw that the kinds of intersections I was interested in were exactly the questions the faculty were studying. I reached out to two professors who ultimately became my advisor and one of my committee members. I’m very thankful for those conversations because, as they talked with me, I immediately got the sense that Technology Management would be a program where I would thrive. Combined with getting to live in the beautiful Santa Barbara area, I knew pretty quickly after being admitted that UCSB was where I wanted to be..

I could not be more thankful for my advisor, Dr. Paul Leonardi, my committee members, Dr. Nelson Phillips and Dr. Matt Bean, as well as the encouragement and support I received from other faculty in Technology Management and the many other professors I encountered throughout my time at UC Santa Barbara. In all my interactions, I always felt the care and development faculty gave to my research and to me as a person. They were there to give feedback, to offer suggestions, to guide me without dictating, and to help me be ambitious even when I felt doubt. I have heard far too many horror stories of academia, and I do think that cultural shifts need to happen, but I am deeply appreciative that was not my experience.

In my department, what is really special is that everyone studies organizations, work, and technology, but from very different theoretical angles and perspectives. Because of that shared thread, even when someone’s research is not directly in the same area as yours, people are very willing to engage with your ideas and help connect you with others they know, whether that be other academics or people in industry. It is a very intellectually energizing department. When I started in Technology Management, the PhD program was fairly new, so I was in a cohort of one, but I built close relationships with the other PhD students who came before me and who started after me. With some of those friends, we often brainstorm future projects we could pursue together, and I am really excited that we have built relationships that I know will continue long after I leave UCSB.

I care deeply about understanding how work could be better organized, how organizations and technologies can support workers, and, more broadly, how we, as a society, can move toward a more dignified existence for people of all ages. For my dissertation project, I wanted to investigate whether flexible, platform-based freelancing could create new possibilities for later-life work, especially as growing numbers of older adults increasingly need or want to continue working despite often limited options in formal employment. This specific research project connects directly to the values that motivate my research in the first place. As a qualitative researcher, I want to produce knowledge grounded in the perspectives of the people actually doing the work and bring to light what they care about, what they hope for, and what constrains them. My hope is that this kind of research can help move us in directions that reduce, rather than exacerbate, inequality and insecurity as work continues to change.

After I graduate, I am excited to be moving to the UK in July to join the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School as an Assistant Professor in Organizational Theory and Information Sciences. My immediate plan is to develop the chapters of my dissertation into journal articles to share with my scholarly community, while also translating insights into forms that are useful and accessible to practitioners, workers, and organizations. Beyond that, what I hope to accomplish is to kick off other research projects working with both current and new collaborators that speak to what motivates me, as I mentioned above: Improving how we organize work, improving how we design and implement technologies, and considering these improvements with attention to people’s dignity for workers and people throughout the life course.