Date of Award
2026
Document Type
Open Access Master's Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Rhetoric, Theory and Culture (MS)
Administrative Home Department
Department of Humanities
Advisor 1
Jason E. Archer
Committee Member 1
James W. Hammond
Committee Member 2
Jennifer Nish
Abstract
This thesis critically examines how a Nigerian digital health platform, mDoc, represents and constructs women’s health. Drawing on Feminist Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Light et al.’s (2018) walkthrough method, the study interrogates the values, assumptions, and power relations embedded in mDoc’s design, language, and governance structures. The analysis reveals that mDoc, despite positioning itself as an equitable solution to Nigeria’s health crisis, reproduces and depoliticizes the structural inequalities it claims to address. Through its neoliberal emphasis on self-care, the individualization of structurally produced suffering, and the datafication of women’s bodies, the platform encodes gendered, colonial, and class-based assumptions that systematically exclude the most marginalized Nigerian women it claims to serve.
Recommended Citation
Ogbodo, Edith Michael, "DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY AND WOMEN’S HEALTH IN NIGERIA: A FEMINIST STS WALKTHROUGH ANALYSIS OF mDOC DIGITAL HEALTH", Open Access Master's Thesis, Michigan Technological University, 2026.
Included in
Digital Humanities Commons, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Medical Humanities Commons, Telemedicine Commons