June 12, 2024 — Data & Society (D&S) is pleased to welcome nine new affiliates, joining an existing group of advocates and researchers who collaborate with the organization. All our affiliates share a commitment to advancing empirical, sociotechnical research as a means of understanding how technology interacts with social institutions and power dynamics, and working to ensure that tech is developed and deployed in the public interest.
“We are so lucky to collaborate with this talented group of affiliates,” said Ania Calderon, managing director of strategy and engagement. “Through their diversity of experiences and expertise, we encounter new avenues of inquiry and fresh angles on our shared work. Their collaboration expands our impact and enriches not only the organization but the field as a whole.”
Affiliates may be involved in a funded research project at D&S, or actively explore or develop future projects and engagements. They are encouraged to participate in events and programs at D&S outside of their main research activities and receive access to D&S’s Slack community, where they can share and view opportunities, participate in conversations, and contribute ideas and happenings. Previous and current affiliates have produced policy briefs, op-eds and participated in D&S-led events.
Formal nominations for affiliate status are made by current D&S staff and approved by senior leadership. Affiliate status is reviewed on a yearly basis. If you’re interested in learning more about our affiliate program or connecting with our network, get in touch at [email protected].
The new affiliates are:
Annette Bernhardt is director of the Technology and Work program at the UC Berkeley Labor Center, and a senior researcher at the UC Berkeley Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. Previously, she was visiting professor in the UC Berkeley Sociology Department, a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, and policy co-director at the National Employment Law Project. A leading scholar of low-wage work, Annette has helped develop and analyze innovative policy responses to economic inequality and technological change in the United States. Her current research focuses on the impact of AI and other data-driven technologies on low-wage workers, as well as public policy models for tech regulation.
Lindsey D. Cameron, a former D&S faculty fellow, is an assistant professor of management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and holds an appointment in the sociology department. She is a fellow (member) at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Princeton and a faculty affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society for the 2023- 2024 academic year. Lindsey’s research focuses on how algorithmic management is changing the modern workplace, with an emphasis on the gig economy. Her ongoing, seven-year ethnography of the largest sector of the gig economy — the ride-hailing industry — examines how algorithmic management changes managerial control. She recently completed a study on how the COVID-19 pandemic affected workers on various gig platforms, and is working on a project on how the gig economy’s business model adapts in the Global South, with a focus on the implications for management and workers.
Leila Doty is an advocate for and architect of public policy that promotes the responsible design, development, and use of technology. Her work is motivated by a deep concern for the harmful consequences technology often inflicts on vulnerable communities, and she is critically hopeful that a more just technological future for all is within reach. Leila currently serves as a privacy and AI analyst with the City of San José. Since joining the City in 2022, Leila has made a lasting impact on how it procures and governs AI systems. Notably, she created the City’s framework for governing AI systems via the public procurement process and wrote its landmark AI policy. Her work serves as the foundation for the GovAI Coalition, a growing collective of over 250 public agencies across the country established and led by her team at San José.
Sorelle Friedler is the Shibulal Family Associate Professor of Computer Science at Haverford College. Previously, she served as the assistant director for Data and Democracy in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under the Biden-Harris Administration, where her work included the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights. Her research focuses on the fairness and interpretability of machine learning algorithms, with applications from criminal justice to materials discovery. Sorelle is a co-founder and former executive committee member of the ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT) as well as a former program committee co-chair of FAccT and FAT/ML. She has received grants for her work on fairness in machine learning, fairness and social networks, using interpretable machine learning techniques to inform scientific hypotheses, responsible CS education, and policy and discriminatory machine learning.
Ryan Gerety is the director of the Athena Coalition — a coalition of 50+ worker, antitrust, racial justice, tech advocacy, economic justice, and environmental justice organizations working together to break Amazon’s dangerous stranglehold over our democracy, economy, and planet. For the last 18 years, she has focused on the economic and political implications of new technology. She has worked with organizers and grassroots organizations to understand and respond to the ways tech and tech corporations are compounding inequality, including through worker surveillance, data-driven redlining, the integration of surveillance technology into public infrastructure, police surveillance, and community-governed broadband.
Wanheng Hu is an incoming Embedded Ethics Fellow at Stanford University’s McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society and the Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI). His research lies at the intersection of the sociology of science, medicine, and technology; critical data/algorithm studies; and public engagement with science. His dissertation project examines the cultivation of credible machine learning systems in complex expert practices, with an empirical focus on image-based diagnostics within the Chinese medical AI industry. Another line of his work reflects on the role of ordinary citizens in technoscientific affairs, particularly concerning AI development.
Tamara K. Nopper is a sociologist, writer, educator, and editor, and was previously a race and technology faculty fellow and a senior researcher with Data & Society. Her research, scholarly publications, popular pieces, and public educational lectures focus on wellness politics, financialization, credit scoring, the racial wealth gap, data literacy (particularly around crime data), policing and surveillance, Asian American communities, and Black-Asian solidarity politics. She is the editor of We Do This ‘Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice, a book of Mariame Kaba’s writings and interviews (Haymarket Books), researcher and writer of several data stories for Colin Kaepernick’s Abolition for the People series and edited book, and guest editor of the Critical Sociology forum “Race and Money.” Tamara is an affiliate of the Center for Critical Race and Digital Studies, a former fellow at Data for Progress, and a member of the inaugural cohort of the NYU Institute for Public Interest Technology. Tamara will assume her role as an affiliate in July 2024.
Bogdana (Bobi) Rakova is a computer scientist, researcher, inventor, and organizer. Her research centers on trustworthy AI, evaluation and red-teaming strategies, algorithmic impact assessments, participatory mechanism design, legal innovation, and the use of speculative methods to explore a wide range of possible futures. She is a senior data scientist with the responsible AI team at DLA Piper, where her work is focused on legal red-teaming and safety guardrails. Bogdana also leads the Speculative Friction Initiative, which curates and prototypes design fiction artifacts that build public awareness and enable new forms of collective participation in data and AI governance. She is passionate about building tools and programs that enable bringing principles and research findings to life for practitioners working on high-risk AI systems in healthcare, education, and law.
Gabrielle Rejouis is a senior fellow at the Workers’ Rights Institute at Georgetown Law. She also teaches as an adjunct professor with Georgetown University’s Communication, Culture & Technology program. Gabrielle’s research and advocacy focuses on technology policy and economic justice using a Black feminist framework. This includes advocating for anti-racist principles in antitrust and tech policy reform, examining how racist exclusions in labor and employment laws impact precarious workers, and campaigning for an end to the surveillance of workers. Her other research interests include cultural and media studies and the role popular education and narratives can play in advancing transformative movements.
Read the full bios of all our affiliates here.